NC Democrats in Congress: HB2 treats LGBT people as ‘second-class citizens’

WASHINGTON – North Carolina’s HB2 treats gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people as “second-class citizens” and has raised scrutiny in Washington, D.C., about federal funding provided in several areas, including education, transportation and health programs, according to the state’s congressional Democrats in a new letter sent Thursday to Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

U.S. Reps. Alma Adams, G.K. Butterfield and David Price signed the letter sent to McCrory and legislative leaders, urging them “in the strongest possible terms” to repeal HB2.

The three Democrats warn House Bill 2 – a nondiscrimination law that soared through the General Assembly last month and excludes LGBT people – jeopardizes millions of North Carolina residents’ workplace discrimination protections due to a clause addressing how legal action may be filed in the state.

HB2 also prohibits North Carolina cities and counties from adopting their own local nondiscrimination ordinances or policies, which is what happened in Charlotte earlier this year to prompt legislative action in Raleigh.

“In short, this law codifies discrimination,” Reps. Price, Butterfield and Adams wrote in the joint letter.

They urged McCrory, Statehouse Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Majority Leader Philip Berger to take action when the Legislature begins its new session next week.

Berger has stated emphatically he won’t support efforts to repeal HB2.

“My job is not to give in to the demands of multimillionaire celebrities pushing a pet social agenda, liberal newspapers like the New York Times, big corporations who have every freedom to set whatever policies they wish under this law,” Berger said Wednesday during a news conference. “My job is to listen to the people who elected us to represent them. And the vast majority of North Carolinians we’ve heard from understand and support this reasonable, common-sense law.”

HB2 passed during a special legislative session in late March to bar Charlotte’s City Council from letting transgender people use public bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity – not necessarily their birth sex.

Now, according to the letter from congressional Democrats, federal agencies are reviewing the law’s implications and whether it conflicts with federal standards and laws such as Title IX, which makes up part of North Carolina’s federal allocations for public education.