Despite pressure from Gov.
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Until the weekend there were reportedly seven members of the city council prepared to repeal the ordinance which would have led Gov. McCrory to call a special session of the state legislature.
“The City of Charlotte continues its commitment to be a welcoming community that honors and respects all people”, Roberts said in a statement.
“We urge the state to take action as soon as possible and encourage continued dialogue with the broader community”, Roberts said in a statement, for which she received repeated cheers and ovations at a city council zoning meeting Monday evening.
Last spring, legislative leaders said the Charlotte ordinance needed to be gone before any significant modifications would be considered to the state law.
McCrory said he tried to find a way to undo the bill. Twenty-three percent said it has made no difference.
“Charlotte is causing more problems by trying to solve a problem that does not exist”, he said.
They are echoing a statement issued Friday by McCrory’s office.
“Roy Cooper’s silence on the Charlotte bathroom ordinance repeal deal confirms he was working with his ally Jennifer Roberts to kill any compromise all along”, the GOP statement read Monday. There are now 18 states and more than 100 USA cities that have LGBT ordinances like Charlotte’s, so there are plenty others to pick from. “And, like the majority of North Carolinians and businesses across the state, we believe that’s exactly what they must do”.
Sgro said he’s proud that Charlotte’s mayor is standing up for the city’s values of diversity and inclusion.
Charlotte’s business leaders and the state’s restaurant and lodging association have been urging a “reset” by repealing both the ordinance and the law. “We all know what must be done – and that is to immediately repeal HB2”.
After Charlotte approved its non-discrimination in February, lawmakers in the state legislature called a special session to override the measure, stoking fears about the prohibition on discrimination against transgender people and saying it would enable men to enter women’s restrooms.
The state law, known as House Bill 2, requires transgender people to use publicly owned bathrooms that correspond with the gender on their birth certificate and bars local ordinances protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination.
Leading North Carolina editorial boards are also speaking out against the thinly-veiled effort, led by the Charlotte Chamber and a hospitality lobbying group on behalf of McCrory and state Republicans.
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Even before the possibility of Charlotte rescinding its ordinance was discussed, at least two GOP state senators – Tamara Barringer, of Cary, and Rick Gunn, of Burlington – have called for either changing the law or repealing it. She and some council members announced earlier in the day they wouldn’t consider repealing LGBT protections they approved in February. The NBA didn’t sign H.B. “The governor should call for a special session today”. Is the Governor going to threaten our entire economy every time he wants to pick a political fight with a local government? Dozens showed their support to city leaders for keeping their word- and not repealing its’ non-discrimination ordinance.
