North Carolina’s governor went to federal court May 9 to defend his state’s new restroom privacy law against a threat from the Obama administration.
Gov. Pat McCrory’s lawsuit asks a judge to declare the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, also known as H.B. 2, is not a violation of federal anti-discrimination protections. The act requires individuals in government buildings to use the restrooms of the sex on their birth certificates.
Possible loss of millions
The Department of Justice (DOJ) had written McCrory and two other state officials May 4 to assert H.B. 2 violated federal law.
It threatened a lawsuit — and seemingly the loss of millions of dollars in federal education aid — if North Carolina did not indicate by May 9 any kind of intention to change the restroom measure.
Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention and state welcomed McCrory’s action.
Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, called the North Carolina law “a common-sense measure that protects individuals as well as conscience.”
“Contrary to what the White House has said, the North Carolina bill is not discriminatory or hateful,” Moore said.
“Bullying of state legislatures by the federal government is the government engaging in culture warring, and the rights of those who dissent from mainstream cultural opinion should be protected.”
Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the North Carolina Values Coalition, said, “It is not the role of the federal government to mandate radical and extreme bathroom policies to a state like North Carolina, forcing our citizens into giving men access to the bathrooms, showers and locker rooms of women and young girls.”
Including transgender
A Southern Baptist, Fitzgerald said the lawsuit requests “a federal judge to determine whether the Obama administration can unilaterally change the meaning of the term ‘sex’ in our country’s anti-discrimination laws to include transgender.”
In its letter, the DOJ said the North Carolina measure violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act.
North Carolina “is engaging in a pattern or practice of discrimination against transgender state employees,” the letter said. The law, which took effect March 23, “is facially discriminatory against transgender employees on the basis of sex,” according to the letter.
Protections ‘not limited’
An April decision by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, prior to the DOJ’s letters held federal law could be interpreted to include gender identity discrimination.
McCrory’s lawsuit said the state “does not treat transgender employees differently from nontransgender employees.”
The suit also said the governor has directed state agencies to provide a reasonable accommodation by means of single occupancy restrooms.
McCrory and his co-plaintiff, Secretary of Public Safety Frank Perry, “desire to accommodate the needs of state employees based on special circumstances, including but not limited to transgender employees,” according to the lawsuit.
(Baptist Press)
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