Schroeder of Federal District Court in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, ruled Friday that the University of North Carolina must allow two transgender students and an transgender employee to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. On Friday, a USA district judge placed a temporary injunction on the public university system’s enforcement of HB2, the state’s controversial “bathroom bill,” on the basis that it likely violates Title IX protections against gender discrimination.
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“We’re confident justice will prevail in the larger case after the judge hears all the evidence at trial this fall so that all gay and transgender North Carolinians will be free from the harm of H.B”.
The state’s Republican leaders argue the law is needed to protect privacy and safety by keeping men out of women’s restrooms.
“North Carolina’s peeping and indecent exposure statutes continue to protect the privacy of citizens regardless of” HB2, Schroeder wrote, “and there is no indication that a sexual predator could successfully claim transgender status as a defense against prosecution under these statutes”.
UNC president Margaret Spellings said in May she had “no intent” of enforcing the law on her campuses, and the university system hired independent legal counsel after the state attorney general’s office decided not to represent the schools.
Joni Worthington, a spokesperson from North Carolina’s university system, said in a statement that the administration felt like it had been “caught in the middle of a conflict that we did not create” and was happy that it was headed toward a court resolution. The challenge was only to part I of HB2, dubbed the “bathroom bill”, that “requires public agencies to ensure that multiple occupancy bathrooms, showers, and other similar facilities are “designated for and only used by” 2 persons based on their ‘biological sex, ‘ defined as the sex listed on their birth certificate”.
Friday’s decision hinged largely on a ruling by a federal appeals court in favor of a transgender teen seeking to use the boys’ restrooms at his Virginia high school.
Judge Thomas Schroeder was appointed by George W. Bush.
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The ruling only applies for the three plaintiffs; however UNC has said they will not enforce HB2 at all on campus.
