The U.S. Department of Justice today filed a lawsuit against North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, the state’s Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina and Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina. The U.S. Department of Justice also requested the judge prohibit the state from enforcing HB2 in regards to discriminating against transgender people.
The Justice Department said in the lawsuit that the so-called “bathroom bill” “stigmatizes and singles out transgender employees, results in their isolation and exclusion, and perpetuates a sense that they are not worthy of equal treatment and respect,” reported the Huffington Post.
A person’s external genitals, the feds said, are “but one component of sex and not always determinative of a person’s sex.”
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the lawsuit “is about a great deal more than just bathrooms” and affects the “dignity and respect we accord our fellow citizens.”
“This is not the first time that we have seen discriminatory responses to historic moments of progress for our nation,” Lynch said. “We saw it in the Jim Crow laws that followed the Emancipation Proclamation. We saw it in fierce and widespread resistance to Brown v. Board of Education. And we saw it in the proliferation of state bans on same-sex unions intended to stifle any hope that gay and lesbian Americans might one day be afforded the right to marry.”
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Equality NC issued the following statements:
“The U.S. Department of Justice has made clear that Governor McCrory’s HB2 is a discriminatory and dangerous piece of legislation that violates federal civil rights laws,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Rather than working with state lawmakers to fix the mess he’s created, Governor McCrory is instead choosing to waste even more time and millions more of taxpayer dollars trying to defend his indefensible attack on transgender people. We commend Attorney General Lynch and the Justice Department for taking action to enforce the rule of law and protect the civil rights of all North Carolinians.”
“The lawsuit filed by Governor McCrory is another attempt to sidestep the inevitable need for a full repeal of HB2,” said Equality NC Executive Director Chris Sgro. “North Carolina’s image, economy, and citizens are hurting because of the deeply discriminatory bill. Governor McCrory and the NCGA leadership are risking billions of dollars in federal funding to uphold a law that should have never been passed in the first place. We applaud Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the U.S. Department of Justice for standing up for North Carolinians when its own leadership has failed to do so.”
The U.S. Department of Justice put Gov. McCrory and state officials on notice last week saying North Carolina’s discriminatory HB2 violates federal civil rights law — including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 — and gave them until today to address the situation “by confirming that the State will not comply with or implement HB2.” In response, Gov. McCrory announced today that he is filing a lawsuit in an attempt to recklessly defend his discriminatory law. Sen. Berger and Speaker Moore also filed a lawsuit.
