YOUR FAVORITE LOGO TV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

NC Governor Pat McCrory Signs Bill Banning LGBT Rights Ordinances Into Law

"It is now time for the city of Charlotte...to get back to working on the issues most important to our citizens."

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has signed a bill passed by Republicans in a special session of the legislature banning all local LGBT ordinances in the state.

The bill, and McCrory's released statement, target a specific ordinance put in place by the local government in Charlotte, which sought to protect trans individuals by allowing them to use whatever bathroom most aligned with their gender identity. This new bill reverses that protection, banning all cities in the state from enacting LGBT nondiscrimination ordinances. It also voids all current LGBT rights ordinances already on the books.

In his statement, McCrory said that "The basic expectation of privacy in the most personal of settings, a restroom or locker room, for each gender was violated by government overreach and intrusion by the mayor and city council of Charlotte. This new government regulation defies common sense and basic community norms by allowing, for example, a man to use a woman’s bathroom, shower or locker room."

He continued, "While local municipalities have important priorities working to oversee police, fire, water and sewer, zoning, roads, and transit, the mayor and city council took action far out of its core responsibilities. As a result, I have signed legislation passed by a bipartisan majority to stop this breach of basic privacy and etiquette which was to go into effect April 1."

“It is now time for the city of Charlotte elected officials and state elected officials to get back to working on the issues most important to our citizens," he concluded at the end of his statement.

The bill made its way through the North Carolina House of Representatives early yesterday morning before unanimously passing the state senate later that afternoon.

Sarah Preston, acting Executive Director of the North Carolina ACLU, released a statement denouncing the bill: “Rather than expand nondiscrimination laws to protect all North Carolinians, the General Assembly instead spent $42,000 to rush through an extreme bill that undoes all local nondiscrimination laws and specifically excludes gay and transgender people from legal protections."

It continues, "Legislators have gone out of their way to stigmatize and marginalize transgender North Carolinians by pushing ugly and fundamentally untrue stereotypes that are based on fear and ignorance. Transgender men are men; transgender women are women. They deserve to use the appropriate restroom in peace, just like everyone else."

Latest News