On March 23, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act-commonly known as House Bill 2 or “The Bathroom Bill.” It does a number of things, but it is most recognized for prohibiting individuals from entering a public facility (such as a bathroom or locker room) designated for a gender different than the one assigned to the sex on their birth certificate. This will mean that a transgender individual can not go to their preferred bathroom until they undergo sex change surgery-an option that is not always feasible or affordable.
HB2 has resulted in a great amount of backlash from people all over the country and it has led over 100 businesses to pull projects and job prospects from North Carolina. Companies such as PayPal, Google, Apple. Uber, Disney, PepsiCo, Facebook, Yahoo, and many more have come out against the bill and some have protested by leaving North Carolina.
In fact, PayPal alone has cancelled a $3.6 million expansion that was meant to create 400 new jobs, Lionsgate is pulling TV shooting here and Bruce Springsteen cancelled his concert in Greensboro.
The amount of revenue lost because of HB2 may put North Carolina in a budget crisis.
The Department of Education, The Department of Housing and Urban Development and The Department of Transportation have been evaluating their funding in NC, which could entail a loss of billions of dollars.
Dorie Nolt, a Department of Education spokeswoman said “We will not hesitate to act if students’ civil rights are being violated.” The Department of Education alone would’ve been expected to give NC around $4 billion this year..
Sophomore Victoria Choplin believes that the law is a discriminatory response to the growing transgender population in North Carolina along with the passing of a Charlotte city ordinance which extended rights to the LGBT community.
“No matter what your opinion is regarding the transgender community, there’s an obvious problem when a bill drastically worsens your state’s economic situation,” Choplin said. “Fixing something that is not broken and breaking it even more than before is not a good solution.”
Richard Cassidy, a member of the Reconciling Ministries Network, which is an organization devoted to the inclusion of people of all sexualities and gender identities to the United Methodist Church, is saddened by the law and feels it is causing major problems socially, politically and economically.
“The problem with laws-especially laws hastily put together-is that it’s hard to see the ramifications way down the road,” Cassidy said. “(Nevada) has had a law allowing people to choose which restrooms that they feel comfortable in since 2011, and they’ve had no problems since then. Vermont has had a law that says that a person can use whatever restroom they identify as-and that has been in place since 2001, and there’s been no problems.”
Currently, the bill is not in consideration to be repealed, and Governor Pat McCrory has come out and said that he still stands by it.