Damien Graham, a spokesman for the Raleigh Police Department, told NPR on Tuesday that his department will not enforce the sweeping law, which requires transgender people to use public bathrooms that do not match their gender identity, because “the bill doesn’t speak to enforcement nor penalty”. Republicans are evenly divided on the issue, with 48 percent in favor and 48 percent opposed.
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The HB2 laws were introduced in North Carolina and prevents people from using public restrooms not of the gender they were assigned at birth.
The state’s governor Pat McCrory on Monday filed a suit against the U.S. Justice Department in defense of the law, and asked the federal courts to decide. Now Democrats Chris Sgro, Pricey Harrison, Susan Fisher and Kelly Alexander want their colleagues to take up House Bill 1078, or The Equality for All Act, which aims to “protect all North Carolinians against discrimination in all walks of life”.
Lynch also threatened to withhold federal funding to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina while the legal case proceeds. “What we must not do – what we must never do – is turn on our neighboUrs, our family members, our fellow Americans, for something they can not control, and deny what makes them human”.
North Carolina says its protecting people who feel their privacy may be violated and that the federal government is overstepping its authority. The Education Department this year is sending almost $4.3 billion to North Carolina, more than half of that in the form of federally backed student loans.
In their warning letters to North Carolina, federal civil rights enforcement attorneys focused on the bathroom provision.
Rep. David Rouzer is weighing in on the legal tussle between North Carolina and the U.S. Justice Department over the legality of House Bill 2. Cooper, calling the law discriminatory, has said he will not defend HB2 against lawsuits – a move critics have called politically motivated.
Ting was referencing a growing national debate over how states should handle who should be allowed to use which restrooms.
The law is receiving much criticism from other state leaders, with the states of New York, Minnesota, Connecticut, Vermont and Washington, in addition to the District of Columbia and 24 cities across the country, banning all “non-essential” travel to North Carolina by state workers or publicly funded transportation systems.
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“You can not single out any one group for different treatment”, Lynch said during the press conference. She also noted that the university “is truly caught in the middle” because the school must adhere to state laws, including HB2.
