North Carolina Will Repeal Parts of Its Discriminatory Bathroom Bill—But the Law's Still Terrible for LGBTQ+ People

Last night, government officials in North Carolina announced that they have arrived at a compromise regarding House Bill 2, according to The New York Times. HB2 is a notorious law  passed early last year that requires people to use the bathroom of the gender assigned to them at birth, and prevents local governments from passign anti-discrimination legislation for a number of years. What the repeal actually means, though, is unclear, and discrimination will likely still be state-sanctioned.

The compromise isn’t quite what it seems. According to Vox, the proposed repeal “continues prohibiting local governments from passing nondiscrimination laws until December 1, 2020...And the deal permanently prevents all government agencies in North Carolina...from setting up trans-friendly bathroom or locker room policies.” So, basically, the "compromise" is still horrible for LGBTQ+ people. While the state government won't be able to stop trans people from using the bathroom of their choice, business owners will.

In September of 2016, former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory withdrew his case against the Justice Department for attempting to block the bill amid widespread condemnation of its policies. A few months later, however, state officials were unable to get rid of HB 2 in full. Wednesday’s decision marks the first major change since then.

In addition to an Associated Press report that estimated North Carolina would suffer a $3.7 billion loss in business profits over the course of the next decade, lawmakers were experiencing new pressure from the NCAA, which announced this week that it wouldn’t host any tournaments in the state for the next several years if HB 2 were in existence.

I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge how incredibly saddening it is that this—the prospect of losing boatloads of money—is what it took for legislators to realize they were making a huge mistake. And they’re still not even remedying the situation entirely.

Despite this seeming victory, citizens and the media should keep in mind that in North Carolina, the right to discriminate remains protected. “I support the House Bill 2 repeal compromise that will be introduced tomorrow. It’s not a perfect deal, but it repeals House Bill 2 and begins to repair our reputation,” said Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper of the proposed new legislation. I’m not so sure that’s likely.