The speed with which North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory unleashed bigotry on his state was striking. In less than a day he signed the anti-LGBT House Bill 2 after it sailed through the Republican-dominated Legislature. The new state law, which goes into effect Friday, prohibits municipal governments from enacting their own anti-discrimination ordinances, and was a direct rebuke to the city of Charlotte, which in February adopted a measure prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity. It proved that Charlotte is a welcoming place, one of a growing number of cities that wants its residents to be treated equally and to respect each other. All of that was undone in an instant �" who knew that state lawmakers and a governor could act so swiftly over a non-emergency matter? �" and reaction from across the country has been swift and unsparing.
Once again, companies were persuasive by standing up and threatening to pull business from the state, as we saw last year over a bogus religious freedom law in Indiana. In Georgia, Republican Governor Nathan Deal on Monday vetoed the Free Exercise Protection Act, a misnomer that actually legitimized state-sanctioned discrimination in the guise of protecting one's personal religious beliefs. Media reports suggest that a flood of opposition from companies such as Coca-Cola and Apple had an effect, but that it was Hollywood's threat to pull filming out of the Peach State that really had an impact. Every year, more businesses step up to rework anti-bias laws to cover LGBT workers and speak out when a state or local government passes an anti-LGBT bill. Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff is a leader who pushed hard in Indiana last year and was active in the Georgia effort.
State and local government leaders are also keeping the heat on. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee last week signed an executive order barring city travel to North Carolina. He was joined this week by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and gay Seattle Mayor Ed Murray. As we report this week, Santa Clara County has had a North Carolina travel ban in place since last year. But notably missing from the local reaction is Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. Last year Oakland did join other local governments in banning city-funded travel to Indiana. This time around, Schaaf's office has yet to issue a statement or respond to our inquiries. With its diverse population, including a large LGBT community, Oakland has missed an opportunity.
And while we celebrate the veto in Georgia, we are alarmed by the North Carolina lawmakers who are so anti-trans that in one day they passed a law that prohibits people from using a bathroom that does not match the gender on their birth certificate. This forces trans women to use men's restrooms, and trans men to use women's facilities, both options that are potentially dangerous and unnecessary. The fear that trans women will act as predators in the ladies' room is laughable and there are no incidents to legitimize this specious claim. In a weird twist, North Carolina lawmakers went further with HB 2, as it prohibits local governments from passing their own laws, like for example raising the minimum wage �" a huge economic justice issue that should anger LGBT and straight North Carolinians alike. In short, McCrory's signing of HB 2 has set his state back rather than move it forward.
Legal advocates wasted no time filing a federal lawsuit challenging North Carolina's law. The plaintiffs are two trans people: Joaquin Carcano, a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill employee, and Payton McGarry, a UNC-Greensboro student; and Angela Gilmore, a lesbian and North Carolina Central University law professor. State Attorney General Roy Cooper, a named defendant in the suit and a Democrat, said this week that his office will not defend the law, which he said is unconstitutional and harms North Carolinians without justification. The lawsuit also points out that under HB 2, LGBT people are second-class citizens who are undeserving of privacy, respect, and protections afforded others in the state. And it charges that the new law violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution because it discriminates on the basis of sex and sexual orientation and is an invasion of privacy for transgender people. Schools in the state could be especially hard hit because the lawsuit alleges that HB 2 violates Title IX by discriminating against students and school employees on the basis of sex.
Last week's events demonstrate that a backlash against LGBT people is well underway, but we must not give in to the haters and go back into the closet. In addition to our allies we need to stand up for ourselves. According to the ACLU, there are almost a dozen proposed laws that target LGBT people. The bathroom bills are very personal and that's why trans people speaking out can have an impact. Unfortunately, things happened so quickly in North Carolina that the bill was on the governor's desk before most people knew what happened.
Most Americans don't know a trans person, and it's that fear of the unknown that is at the heart of much of the public outcry. However, it doesn't need to be this way. Just as gays and lesbians had to come out publicly and speak up when confronted by harmful legislation, so must trans people themselves take a stand. Allies in the business community are important, but it's by speaking directly to lawmakers, as trans students have done in several cases in recent months, that will humanize the issue.