“Some transgender individuals have been quietly using bathrooms and other facilities that match their gender identity, without public awareness or incident”.
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Lawyers for Republican Governor Pat McCrory and other Republican lawmakers who support the law said it offered common-sense protection of state residents’ privacy and safety, even though it included no specific language for enforcement.
North Carolina university system spokeswoman Joni Worthington said in a statement yesterday that public universities had been “caught in the middle of a conflict that we did not create between state law and federal guidance” and welcomed court resolution of the issues.
“Today, the tightness that I have felt in my chest every day since HB2 passed has eased. But the fight is not over: we won’t rest until this discriminatory law is defeated”, said Joaquín Carcaño, lead plaintiff in the case.
The full case to challenge HB2 is expected to go on trial in November.
Although the ruling applies only directly to three plaintiffs in the case – two transgender students and one employee of the University – it comes as welcome relief to LGBT supporters who hope it will be the first step in bringing down the law.
However, he said they haven’t shown they are likely to succeed on a claim that the law violates their constitutional equal protection rights, and he reserved judgment on another constitutional claim related to due process.
“Our clients are one step closer to being free from the discrimination that this harmful law imposes on them”, ACLU of North Carolina Legal Director Chris Brook added. The appeals court cited Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in educational environments, and highlighted the U.S. Department of Education’s interpretation that Title IX covers gender identity.
Lambda Legal, a civil rights organization involved in the case, released a press release after the ruling in which Carcaño said, “Today is a great day for me and hopefully this is the start to chipping away at the injustice of H.B”.
A federal court declared on Friday that North Carolina’s anti-LGBT HB2 can not be enforced while it is being challenged in court.
Schroeder wrote in an 83-page order issued on Friday afternoon that until the legal battle is over, schools in North Carolina can not enforce HB2.
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North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, who have hired private attorneys to defend the law after the state’s Democratic attorney general declined to do so, issued a statement maintaining that the law represents “commonsense protections to keep grown men out of bathrooms and showers with women and young girls”. “They should be spending time working on improving education and growing jobs, not defending HB2 and inflicting further harm on the people, reputation, and economy of North Carolina”.
