U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced on Monday night that the DOJ would be filling a civil rights lawsuit against North Carolina to stop the implementation of the bill, which bans people from using bathrooms that do not reflect their biological sex.
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On Monday the U.S. Justice Department sued North Carolina over HB2, asking a federal court to declare the law’s provisions “discriminate on the basis of sex”.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) said at a Monday press conference that the country was “dealing with a very new, complex and emotional issue” that involved “balancing privacy and equality”.
The new state law excludes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from state anti-discrimination protection and bars local governments from adopting their own anti-bias measures.
The move comes after North Carolina passed the controversial House Bill 2, which requires people in schools and government buildings use the bathroom that corresponds to their sex on their birth certificate, not their gender identity.
A sign protesting a recent North Carolina law restricting transgender bathroom access adorns the bathroom stalls at the 21C Museum Hotel in Durham, North Carolina May 3, 2016.
McCrory said Sunday that he will make a decision within 24 hours, but he criticized the Justice Department’s time limit, saying that any actions he takes will be consequential for too many Americans.
Economic factors notwithstanding, the senator said the legislation created a climate indicative of the state’s values.
“Every business in the nation that employs more than 15 people is under threat… that the federal government will sue them” if they don’t permit trans employees to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity, Stam says.
Democrats in North Carolina have introduced an LGBT nondiscrimination bill in response to House Bill 2, which critics have widely considered to be anti-LGBT due to stipulations in its bathroom laws. State public schools received $861 million during this school year, according to The Charlotte Observer, and the University of North Carolina system received $1.4 billion in 2014-15.
North Carolina is part of the fourth circuit, which heard this case in Virginia. He called on Congress to clarify the law rather than allowing the executive and judicial branches to interpret whether laws meant to protect against gender discrimination also protected transgender individuals.
Ebert says that he would like to see NC’s employment anti-discrimination law to be for word-for-word with the federal Civil Rights Act.
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