So, after Pat McCrory passed North Carolina’s Hate Bill—HB2—into law and after it cost him reelection, North Carolina Republican lawmakers decided to the anti-LGBT law, except ... their plan does not entirely repeal HB2.
Their new bill—SB4—does repeal HB2, including its restrictions mandating what bathrooms transgender people may use, but it also creates a “Six-Month Cooling-Off Period,” in which no municipality in the state may pass any laws related to employment or public accommodations, specifically noting “access to restrooms, showers, or changing facilities.”
Sounds like a bait-and-switch to me, but then that’s the GOP, right? That’s another six months that LGBT people in Charlotte, and around the state, will have no explicit legal recourse at the state or local level if they experience discrimination in employment, housing, or public accommodations.
In the end, the NC Senate approved an amendment to the repeal bill extending the six-month moratorium on local protections until the end of the 2017 legislative session. In other words, the deal got worse, because North Carolina Republicans refuse to vote for a bill that will still allow cities to protect LGBT people from discrimination.
Hate lives on in North Carolina thanks to the GOP.
|