North Carolina lawmakers have broken their promise to repeal HB2 in full.
After an all-day special session to figure out what to do about HB2, lawmakers filed SB4, which addressed some parts of HB2, but not all of them. The bill lifted the restrictions on trans people using affirming bathrooms, but it also called for a “Six-Month Cooling-Off Period” in which cities and counties would not be allowed to enact their own LGBTQ nondiscrimination policies – including policies actually protecting trans people. LGBTQ citizens would therefore be left vulnerable to discrimination for another six months – and that discrimination would be perfectly legal.
Earlier, Republicans said they wouldn’t budge on repealing HB2 until the city of Charlotte repealed its LGBTQ nondiscrimination ordinance, which was the reason HB2 was enacted in the first place. Charlotte unanimously repealed its LGBTQ protections earlier this week, having been promised that it would lead to the full repeal of HB2. But the other side didn’t come through with a comprehensive repeal bill. They produced SB4 instead.
As a result, Democrats wouldn’t vote in favor of SB4 because of the 180-day waiting period for protections. And so the day’s session ended with HB2 still intact, even though LGBTQ citizens are no longer protected in Charlotte.
Lawmakers walked away after hours of debate in public and behind closed doors with flocks of protesters crowding the statehouse, most of them seeking the law, known as House Bill 2 or HB2, to be killed off. Their day ended in disappointment.
As the debate in the North Carolina Senate began to spiral, the crowd reacted.
“Do what you said you would do,” a member of the audience yelled. The larger audience chanted “shame” as the North Carolina Senate adjourned.
The lack of resolution is a blow to Gov.-elect Roy Cooper, the Democratic attorney general who campaigned against the law. After narrowly defeating Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, Cooper worked to broker a deal between the Republican-led legislature and the city of Charlotte, whose ordinance expanding LGBT protections in February prompted the law.
I am so damn mad at myself for getting my hopes up that North Carolina Republican lawmakers would ever give a damn about LGBTQ lives. I feel livid and betrayed. Friends in North Carolina, my heart is with you tonight. This is not over, and we will not stop fighting for you and alongside you.