North Carolina’s bathroom bill expired on Dec. 1, allowing local governments in the state to pass ordinances that let self-identified transgenders persons choose whichever bathroom they prefer, regardless of their biological sex.
The North Carolina General Assembly passed the controversial H.B. 2, the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, in 2017, which mandated that people use the public restroom that corresponds to their biological sex, the North State Journal reported.
After outrage from transgender activists, however, the General Assembly replaced H.B. 2 with a H.B. 142.
H.B. 142 prohibited local governments from “regulating private employment practices or regulating public accommodations,” instead reserving that power for the General Assembly.
But the General Assembly subjected these regulations to a sunset clause, which states that “Section 3 of this act expires on December 1, 2020.”
Republicans controlled the state Senate, state House of Representatives, and the Executive mansion when they passed H.B. 142, a compromise bill to kick the can down the road.
Conservatives such as then-state Sen. Dan Bishop, R-Mecklenburg, opposed H.B. 142 because he considered it a “punt.”
Progressives and radical transgender activists now have caught the punt, and they’re running downfield.
They’re mounting an effort to get local governments to pass ordinances that would classify sexual orientation and gender identity as classes which deserve special protection in employment and public accommodations.
Before Bishop voted against H.B. 142, he said that bill “inescapably implies that 32-months hence, handfuls of local officials can use government power to coerce people to embrace an ideology of sexual ethics contrary to their values.
It is in that sense a declaration of surrender, albeit, three years in advance.”
EqualityNC, an LGBTQ organization, held an HB142 Sunset Townhall on Dec. 1 to plot how to transform gender identity and sexual orientation laws.
Elected officials, including Durham Mayor Pro Tempore Jillian Johnson, state Rep. Susan Fisher, D-Buncombe, and Buncombe County Commissioner Jasmine Beach–Ferrara, attended the townhall.
“One of the things we are hoping to do tonight is kick off a season of coordinated action across the state,” Beach-Ferrara said.
“I’m really excited now to use the power of local government to expand people’s rights,” Johnson said.
Republicans still control both chambers in the General Assembly, but Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper can veto their legislation.
“With this section of H.B. 142 finally gone, North Carolina’s cities can once again protect their LGBTQ constituents in every arena of their lives from housing to health care to public accommodations,” Fisher said.
Republicans, due to their weakness in 2017, will be helpless as Democratic cities and counties empower men to use women’s restrooms.
“It can be vetoed and, fortunately, we still have an opportunity to sustain vetoes for this governor—we have enough members that that can happen,” Fisher said.
“So I’m glad this sunset is happening, I look forward to seeing what cities do in response to it, and if anything comes up in the General Assembly that looks like trying to thwart it, I and others will be there to put up the roadblocks,” he said.
Fisher said local governments should enact a progressive policy agenda that extends to more than letting transgender persons choose their own bathroom.
“This is for everything from accommodations to minimum wage increases to anything that they want to do separate from what the state does,” she said.
EqualityNC as well as local and state officials are promoting the “NCisready” hashtag on social media.
They are asking residents to contact local officials and tell them to support “nondiscrimination” policies,” even though pro-LGBTQ policies harm girls and women who will be forced to use restrooms in the presence of biological males.
Carrboro is ready! Let’s once again lead the way in providing equal protections for ALL of our residents. #LGBTQ #ncisready https://t.co/592SyKsZLx
— Susan Romaine (@Susan4Carrboro) December 2, 2020
A corresponding website, ncisready.org, likewise tells citizens to contact elected officials because “No one in North Carolina should face discrimination because of who they are.”
Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the North Carolina Values Coalition, said it was inevitable that progressives would seize the opportunity to advance their agenda after H.B. 142 sunsetted.
“We have been expecting this since House Bill 142 passed because the legislature decided to punt it down the road with the sunset provision on Section 3 of H.B. 142,” she said. “But we also expected the activist groups to put together something to push for what they want, and it looks like they have.”
She said the best path forward for Republicans in the General Assembly may be to pass legislation like H.B. 142 without a sunset clause.
“H.B. 142 is a middle ground, so I don’t know why legislators wouldn’t make it permanent,” Fitzgerald said.
