RALEIGH, N.C. — Today, Equality North Carolina and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) strongly condemned a Republican-led proposal which would double down on the most discriminatory provisions of North Carolina’s HB2. After nearly a year of unprecedented economic suffering and discrimination, the state’s House and Senate leaders continue to fail in their responsibility to undo the damage they inflicted on the state and fully repeal HB2.
Among a host of discriminatory and troubling measures, the new proposal introduced by Republican State Representative Chuck McGrady would prevent cities from passing meaningful non-discrimination protections — forbidding them from passing ordinances ensuring transgender people have access to restrooms — as well as prevent cities from implementing policies that stop taxpayer funds from being used by contractors to discriminate against LGBTQ people. It would also impose additional new and unnecessary penalties for crimes committed in restrooms, and it would create a mechanism for non-discrimination ordinances to be subject to a burdensome referendum process.
“This failure of leadership is unprecedented. The clock has run out on the time for political gamesmanship, and what we desperately need is the full and complete repeal of HB2 to fix our state and move on with repairing our image,” said Chris Sgro, Executive Director of Equality North Carolina. “Instead of taking meaningful action, today Chuck McGrady in conjunction with Phil Berger and Tim Moore doubled down on the harm our state and LGBTQ people have already suffered. I’m certain this will not bring back business or sporting events, and only serves to reinforce the damage. We can still fix this — by allowing for the immediate vote on a clean repeal of HB2. Everything else is a distraction from the real issue.”
“Once again, LGBTQ people are being singled out for discrimination by this far-reaching bill. This isn’t an HB2 repeal. This is HB2 all over again,” said JoDee Winterhof, HRC Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs. “This proposal is a slap in the face to North Carolinians and does nothing to address the incredible harm HB2 continues to cause. North Carolina lawmakers must drop their political antics and immediately vote for a full and clean repeal of HB2.”
