RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Transgender people in North Carolina are still effectively prevented from using restrooms matching their gender identity under a law that replaced the state’s notorious “bathroom bill” earlier this year, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.
The replacement law continues the harms of its predecessor by leaving restroom policies in the hands of state lawmakers and preventing local governments or school systems from setting rules or offering guidance, the complaint states.
“The vacuum purposefully created by H.B. 142 in effect maintains the ban of (the previous law) and encourages discrimination by both government and private entities and individuals,” the lawsuit says. “The law offers no guidance to anyone except by implication and makes it impossible for a reasonable person who is transgender to know which restroom they can legally use.”
North Carolina took the “bathroom bill” off the books in late March after a yearlong backlash that hurt the state’s reputation and caused businesses and sports leagues to back out of lucrative events and projects. The compromise between Republican legislative leaders and Democrats led by Gov. Roy Cooper eliminated a provision that required transgender people to use restrooms in many public buildings corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates.
But the new law states that only the General Assembly – not local government or school officials – can make rules for public restrooms from now on. Local governments are also prohibited from enacting new nondiscrimination ordinances for workplaces, hotels and restaurants until December 2020.