Corporations back challenge to North Carolina LGBT discrimination law

A federal lawsuit has been filed against North Carolina’s new LGBT discrimination law which, it is claimed, violates the US constitution.  Last week, Governor Pat McCrory signed a bill that prevents local governments from enacting laws which protect LGBT people from discrimination and which requires transgender people to use bathrooms matching their biological sex rather than their gender identity.  The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of North Carolina, Lambda Legal and Equality North Carolina are backing the litigation.  The new law has faced significant opposition from corporations including Bank of America, Microsoft, Lowe’s and American Airlines, all of which have been shown to have financial links to the politicians responsible for the North Carolina law.

Three people, backed by civil liberties groups, on Monday filed a federal lawsuit against North Carolina’s sweeping new LGBT discrimination law, which the plaintiffs say violates the constitution.

Governor Pat McCrory last week signed into law a bill that blocks local governments from enacting laws with anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people and requires transgender people to use bathrooms that match with their biological sex, even if doing so violates their gender identity.

House Bill 2 (HB2) was shuttled through the state government in one day, inspiring a protest from Democratic lawmakers and ensuring a swift response from civil liberties groups despite the Easter weekend. The federal lawsuit was announced on Sunday night.

“By singling out LGBT people for disfavored treatment and explicitly writing discrimination against transgender people into state law,” the lawsuit said, “HB2 violates the most basic guarantees of equal treatment and the US constitution.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of North Carolina, Lambda Legal and Equality North Carolina brought the litigation, which charges the state and the University of North Carolina with a wide range of unconstitutional acts.

The suit said the law violated the constitution’s equal protection clause by discriminating against people based on gender; the right to privacy, because it will force transgender people to out themselves; Title IX, which prohibits educational institutions that receive public funds from discriminating based on gender; and the right to refuse unwanted medical treatment, because to access facilities consistent with their gender identity, transgender people must undergo medical procedures, even against a doctor’s advice.

“My family, my friends, my co-workers and many more in the state affirm my male identity; that is not something that can be stripped away by a bill such as this,” said Joaquín Carcaño, the lead plaintiff, a 27-year-old transgender employee of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

“But what has been attacked is a basic right, a right to feel protected and safe.”

What has been attacked is a basic right, a right to feel protected and safe Joaquín Carcaño, plaintiff

The two other personal plaintiffs are Payton Grey McGarry, 20, a transgender student at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and Angela Gilmore, 52, associate dean for academic affairs at North Carolina Central University.

In explaining how the law violates the constitution’s equal protection clause, the lawsuit said the law “is not substantially related to any important government interest. Indeed, it is not even rationally related to any legitimate government interest.”

McCrory, a Republican, is a defendant in the case, as is attorney general Roy Cooper, a Democrat who is running in the state’s gubernatorial election in November.

Cooper, a Democrat, condemned the legislation in a video last week.

“That North Carolina is making discrimination part of the law is shameful,” he said.

The University of North Carolina and its board of governors, which is elected by the state’s general assembly, are also named as defendants.

The suit was filed on Monday in the US district court of the middle district of North Carolina. It came amid an uproar against the law, with businesses among those to have condemned it. Last Friday, the Charlotte News and Observer editorial board said the law was “shameful” and “encouraged bigotry”.

“What the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act is really about is respect, or rather the ultimate expression of a lack of it – insult,” the newspaper said. “McCrory and his fellow Republicans who control the legislature have used this shoddy bill to slap people in the face.”

The lawsuit seeks to show the personal repercussions of the law, less than a week after it was passed.

Court documents said Carcaño’s birth certificate shows he is a woman, though he identifies as male and has identified that way since he was a child growing up in south Texas. His friends, family and coworkers recognize him as a man, the documents said, more than a year after he changed his name and explained his identity to them. His therapist is concerned that “using the women’s restroom could compromise his mental health, well-being and safety”.

At UNC, in keeping with the law, Carcaño will now have to leave the campus and use a private bathroom. If he uses the women’s restroom as the law requires, the suit said, “it would also force him to disclose to others the fact that he is transgender, which itself could lead to violence and harassment”.

Though Carcaño is in the process of having his name changed, the suit notes that while at the courthouse or department of motor vehicles to do so, he will be prohibited from using the bathroom that matches his gender identity.

“We, members of the transgender community, are no different than any of you, you pass on the street whether you know it or not,” said Carcaño. “I guarantee you have shared a bathroom with us.”

McGarry described a similar situation in the lawsuit, though he enrolled at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro as male and has used the men’s bathrooms and locker rooms in the year and a half he has been a student there.

Gilmore explained how the new law harms her life in North Carolina. She is married to her partner of nearly 20 years, Angela Wallace, whom she met while visiting Greensboro for a temporary teaching position. They settled in Durham, thinking it would be accepting of both their relationship and that they are both African American.

Under the new law, it is illegal for any city or county in North Carolina to create anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people. This, Gilmore said, has “significantly undone [she and her partner’s] sense of belonging and value in the state”.

“It’s a message to us from the legislature and the governor that we are not welcome here,” Gilmore said. “It’s also a message to Durham, our new home, not to do anything that will make us feel welcome and safe.”

HB2 was spurred by a Charlotte city council ordinance passed in February that barred discrimination in public places based on “gender identity, gender expression” and “sexual orientation”.

Republican lawmakers voiced their opposition to the ordinance before it was passed. Last week they challenged it in a special session, which cost approximately $42,000 to convene, according to court documents.

While the governor is usually responsible for calling a special session, this round was called by the legislature under a rarely used measure – the lieutenant governor’s chief of staff said the process had not been used since 1981.

“We witnessed an affront to democracy,” said Democratic senator Dan Blue, the minority leader, last week.

Chris Sgro, executive director of Equality NC, said on Monday lawmakers passed the bill “hastily and without consideration of consequences”.

“HB2 is the most sweeping anti-LGBT law in the nation and it will not stand the test of time and the test of federal court,” he said.