People on both sides of North Carolina’s controversial House Bill 2 made their voices heard in Raleigh on Monday.
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The last time lawmakers were in Raleigh, was for a special session in March where they passed House Bill 2. The law, which was enacted last month, prevents discrimination protections from being extended to gay and transgender people and prohibits transgender people from using the public bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.
Supporters and opponents of a new North Carolina transgender law have been holding competing rallies on the first day of the state’s legislative session.
The legislators met for a brief session on Monday evening but soon adjourned, to the annoyance of critics of the bill.
“The battle is about to be engaged”, said Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, a veteran of North Carolina’s cultural wars, told the crowd.
House Speaker Tim Moore told the rally in favor of HB2 that legislators “should be proud” of the law.
# 2 Budget details – After providing his highlights on Friday, Governor Pat McCrory is expected to release full details of his budget blueprint on Wednesday ahead of House Appropriations.
“Governor (Pat) McCrory, Senator (Phil) Berger and Speaker (Tim) Moore made this mess all on their own by colluding to ram through risky and discriminatory legislation in less than a day”, the statement said. The law has led Paypal to cancel a major expansion that would have brought more than 400 jobs to North Carolina, and Deutsche Bank to halt plans to add 250 jobs in the state.
Credit: Gregg RothPeter Frampton will honor his commitment to play scheduled shows in North Carolina and MS this summer, despite being strongly against each state’s controversial laws that opponents say discriminate against the LBGT community.
Meyer said he expects to see several long-serving Republicans who are retiring after this session to attempt to push through pieces of legislation that they have had on their “to-do list”. “North Carolina sticks together”.
The documents will be on display Monday morning through Tuesday afternoon. As they were taken to a detention center via bus, onlookers chanted, “Thank you, we love you”. “The only way to restore North Carolina’s reputation is to repeal all of HB 2 and pass comprehensive nondiscrimination protections that protect all North Carolinians”.
Rev. William Barber, the head of the state NAACP, called the law “Hate Bill 2”.
After the hourlong rally, the groups took stacks of boxes with the signed petitions to the Capitol, where state Capitol Police monitored their delivery to the governor’s office. To lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights advocates, however, House Bill 2, as it’s known, was something of a personal assault. Ordinary citizens are pushing back against the Left’s orchestrated misinformation campaign saying the law is discriminatory against the LGBT community.
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Most emphasized that the goal of the law was to protect women and girls from sexual predators who would use the bathroom ordinance to assault them.
