Friday, 31 March 2017 - 10:28am
Dear Colleagues,
North Carolina lawmakers have voted to "roll back" HB 2, the "bathroom bill", in an attempt to end the backlash over the rights of transgender people. HB 2 has been a very costly choice to discriminate in loss of business projects, conventions and basketball tournaments.
The roll back is a compromise worked out under mounting pressure from the NCAA, which threatened to withdraw more sporting events. The compromise repeals a year-old law that required transgender people to use the public restrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate.
Activists who opposed HB2 say that that the new law still denies transgender people from protection from discrimination and demand a full repeal.
"While the new measure eliminates the rule on transgender bathroom use, it also says state legislators — not local government or school officials — are in charge of policy on public restrooms.
House Bill 2 had also restricted local governments' ability to enact nondiscrimination ordinances. Under the bill just approved, local governments can't pass new nondiscrimination protections for workplaces, hotels and restaurants until December 2020.
The deal came as the NCAA said North Carolina wouldn't be considered for championship events from 2018 to 2022 unless HB2 was changed. The sports governing body said it would start making decisions on host cities this week and announce them in April.
North Carolina cities, schools and other groups have submitted more than 130 bids for such events.The NCAA already pulled championship events from the state this year because of HB2." (Carol Graves Holladay,Hurt, Norton & Associates, 30 March 2017)
When HB 2 passed in 2016, ACPA withdrew its Assessment Institute from Charlotte, NC. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/04/05/conference-organizers-move-event-out-of-charlotte.amp.html