A judge has ruled that three transgender people – two students and one employee – at the University of North Carolina must be allowed to use the bathrooms corresponding to their gender identities.
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Until a final decision is reached in the case, the schools – which have said they are caught between conflicting state and federal mandates – can not enforce the language requiring the bathrooms, showers and other facilities people use must match the gender on their birth certificates, District Judge Thomas Schroeder wrote in an 83-page order issued Friday afternoon. Judge Schroeder rightly recognized that transgender people in North Carolina, and all over the nation, have been using restrooms that match their gender identity without issue – and that HB2 interferes with transgender people’s ability to work and learn and endangers their health. Schroeder said from the record he had so far, the equal protection claims did not seem likely to succeed, but he didn’t weigh in on the due process allegations.
He said that while his injunction shouldn’t pose any hardship to the state leaders seeking to defend the law, failing to block the restroom provision “would cause substantial hardship to the individual transgender Plaintiffs, disrupting their lives”.
McCroy and Phil Berger, the Republican president pro tempore of the North Carolina Senate, both of whom are listed on the case involving the University of North Carolina, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
File picture shows a man holding up a sign supporting North Carolina’s anti-transgender bathroom law following Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’ campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, August 18, 2016. Pat McCrory earlier this year – which subsequently drew an Obama administration lawsuit. Transgender residents challenging the law say that restroom safety is protected by existing laws, while the North Carolina measure is harmful and discriminatory.
For now, the decision is a victory for three transgender students in the UNC school system who are part of the case, as well as advocates of the LGBT community.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Gavin Grimm, a transgender Virginia high school student blocked from using bathrooms and locker rooms matching his gender identity.
“Today is a great day for me and hopefully this is the start to chipping away at the injustice of H.B”. HB2 also bans cities and towns from creating their own LGBTQ anti-discrimination laws.
HB2 “is still in effect”, McCrory’s general counsel, Bob Stephens, said in a written statement.
“And although Defendants argue that a preliminary injunction will thwart enforcement of such safety laws by allowing non-transgender predators to exploit the opportunity to cross-dress and prey on others … the unrefuted evidence in the current record suggests that jurisdictions that have adopted accommodating bathroom access policies have not observed subsequent increases in crime”.
Carcano was represented in part by the American Civil Liberties Union, which praised the ruling.
This group is challenging HB2 in court.
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The University of North Carolina, however, has reiterated that it won’t enforce H2B.
