The North Carolina Legislature held a special session this morning to vote on the possible repeal of HB2, a controversial law that specified bathroom and locker room usage in public buildings, restricted new local-level non-discrimination ordinances, and restricted minimum wage regulations.
HB2 was originally passed as a counter-measure to the local Charlotte city ordinance which allowed for bathroom usage based on sexual identity and expression, and added LGBT non-discrimination protections for Charlotte.
Since HB2 was passed earlier this year, numerous companies decided not to bring jobs to North Carolina, and at least a dozen major concerts canceled their shows due to the controversial law.
Back in September, several Republican lawmakers offered to support the repeal of HB2, but only if the City of Charlotte would repeal their then unenforceable ordinance.
After Democrat Roy Cooper was voted in as Governor in the beginning of December, the City of Charlotte decided to repeal it’s ordinance, hoping the Republican agreement still stood.
On Monday, they passed a partial repeal, and then this morning, they passed a second, more complete repeal, hours before the NC legislatures were scheduled to meet to discuss a repeal of HB2.
Charlotte leaders stated that their reasoning for repealing the city ordinance was to attempt to persuade the state to repeal HB2:
City statement following #CLTCC emergency meeting. #NCPOL #HB2 #NCGA pic.twitter.com/cbpzwm6b76
— City of Charlotte (@CLTgov) December 21, 2016
This morning, the executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party released a statement blasting Democrats in Charlotte, saying they “lied directly to the people.”
The City Council and Cooper “have now seriously harmed HB2 repeal efforts,” the statement reads. “The HB2 blood is now stain soaked on their hands and theirs alone. What a dishonest, disgraceful shame by Roy Cooper and Charlotte Democrats.”
Even after Charlotte repealed its ordinance, the HB2 repeal measure failed in the Senate, and the special session of the House adjourned without repealing the bill.
What do you think about Charlotte’s non-discrimination ordinance and North Carolina’s HB2?