North Carolina governor signs bill regulating transgender bathroom use, limiting local governance

On Wednesday night, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed a bill that prohibits transgender people in the state from using a restroom or locker room that doesn't match the gender on their birth certificate, bars local governments from passing their own anti-discrimination laws, and bans municipalities from raising the minimum wage above the state level. The Republican-controlled state legislature had called an emergency session on Tuesday to pass the bill, at a cost of $42,000, in order to quash an anti-discrimination ordinance set to take effect in Charlotte on April 1.

The hastily crafted law — which puts in place a statewide nondiscrimination measure that doesn't mention gay or transgender people — passed in the state House, 82-26, and unanimously in the Senate after every Democrat walked out in protest. "We choose not to participate in this farce," explained Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue (D). Republicans argued that the bill was necessary to ensure public safety and preserve the primacy of state law over local measures. "It's common sense — biological men should not me be in women's showers, locker rooms, and bathrooms," said Rep. Dean Arp (R) before the measure passed.

Similar measures prohibiting gender-identity bathroom use recently failed in Tennessee and in South Dakota, where the Republican governor vetoed it. "North Carolina has gone against the trend," said North Carolina ACLU head Sarah Preston. "And they crafted a bill that was more extreme than others. They specifically left gays, lesbians, and the transgender community out of the anti-discrimination policy. They want to make it plain that they think that kind of discrimination is okay."

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The three hours of General Assembly debate on Wednesday included public testimony. People supporting the bill focused on the idea that predatory males could go into female bathrooms and sexually abuse people. Those opposed to the measure called that idea nonsense and argued that it can be dangerous and awkward for a transgender person to use a bathroom for his or her birth gender. "I can't use the men's room," said Madeleine Gause, a transgender woman who said she was bullied as a boy in Hickory. "It is unsafe for me.... And it freaks people out when I go to the men's room. Would you want to go to the men's room with me?" Besides, when transgender people go into a restroom, "people aren't getting raped and murdered," she added. "They are just going to the bathroom."