North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory is going to court in a fight for a state law that limits protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
McCrory is leading a lawsuit filed Monday seeking to keep in place the law the U.S. Justice Department said last week violated the civil rights of transgender people.
The Justice Department had set a deadline of Monday for McCrory to report whether he would refuse to enforce the last that took effect in March.
McCrory and other state officials have been under pressure since the U.S. Justice Department warned last week that the law passed in March violates civil rights protections against sex discrimination on the job and in education for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
In letters, federal civil rights enforcement attorneys focused particularly on provisions requiring transgender people to use public restrooms that correspond to their biological sex. A federal lawsuit against the state is possible, the Justice Department said.
“It’s the federal government being a bully. It’s making law,” McCrory said on “Fox News Sunday.” The Justice Department is “trying to define gender identity, and there is no clear identification or definition of gender identity.” Still, McCrory wouldn’t disclose how the state would respond in writing.
“I’m looking at all my options,” he said.
McCrory has called the law a common-sense measure. He said it’s designed to protect the privacy of people who use bathrooms and locker rooms and to expect all people inside the facilities to be of the same gender. McCrory said Sunday he was not aware of any North Carolina cases of transgender people using their gender identity to access a restroom and molest someone, a fear frequently cited by the law’s supporters as the main reason for its passage.
While McCrory agreed that the Justice Department could warn of consequences if North Carolina established separate bathrooms for white and black people, the governor said the agency goes too far in contending that transgender people enjoy similar civil rights protections.
“We can definitely define the race of people. It’s very hard to define transgender or gender identity,” McCrory said. He added that he had made a request for more time to respond to the Justice Department but that was denied.
The governor has become the public face of the law called House Bill 2, which has been the subject of fierce criticism by gay rights groups, corporate executives and entertainers demanding that the law be repealed.North Carolina has already paid a price for the law, with some business scaling back investments in the state and associations cancelling conventions.
The 17-campus UNC system risks losing more than $1.4 billion in federal funds if they don’t comply. Another $800 million in federally backed loans for students who attend the public universities also would be at risk if it’s found that enforcing the law violates Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on sex. The letter to McCrory said the law also violates Title VII, which bars employment discrimination.
Repealing the law also would satisfy the attorneys, but GOP lawmakers who run the General Assembly had no plans before to do so Monday.
Senate leader Phil Berger of Eden said last week that he’s frustrated because “we have a federal administration that is so determined to push a radical social agenda that they would threaten” federal funding. “I just think the people should be frustrated and people should be angry.”
UNC President Margaret Spellings has said that while the university system is obligated to follow the law, it did not endorse the law. Spellings said later she hoped legislators would change the law, which could discourage promising faculty and students from coming to system campuses. McCrory said the system’s governing board wouldn’t get together until Tuesday to discuss the issue.
Civil liberties groups and several individuals already have sued to challenge the law, which also prevents local governments from passing rules giving protections to LGBT people while using public accommodations such as restaurants and stores. The state law was designed to block an ordinance by the city council in Charlotte.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Stick to your guns Gov. Pat McCrory. If more of our Congressional leaders stood up for their constituents, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in right now. This administration is changing our morality for .03% of our population. These people need help, not encouragement
It is a common since law, and it shows the liberal stupidity of our DOJ by their response.
The answer to this will most likely cost taxpayers a bunch more money. In public owned buildings we will need to have three choices, men only, woman only and for anyone. For private business it will be a choice just as it will be for private citizens. As for me, in order to protect my family I will not associate with businesses that allow men to use the women’s facility’s or women to use the mens. I will be cancelling our Target credit card this week. They can do what they want but I choose to not assiate with them anymore.
I agree. I wont go to target either.
OBAMA IS DOING SATAN’S WORK,EVER WONDER WHO HE REALLY IS?SATAN IS NOW IN CHARGE OF THE MEDIA BOTH PRINTED AND TV. AND OBAMA IS LEADING THIS EVILNESS.ON ABORTION,GOD SENDS SOULS AND SATAN KILLS SOULS WITH OBAMA AGAIN LEADING.SINCE OBAMA STOLE THE WH. HIS AGENDA HAS BEEN EVERYTHING EVIL.
<3 <3 Amen <3 <3 !!! !
How very true.
Agreed; Obama is Lucifer in person! Why are so called Transgenders offended when they are offered Transgender bathrooms; why insist on using the Ladies or Men’s bathroom? Don’t understand that one.
I am offended by possibly having a Man come into the Ladies room! But 97% of the people do not count; only that small percentage.
The Country has gone to Hell in a Hand Basket; and a lot of people are going to Hell for the immorality forced on this country. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah?
<3 <3 Amen <3 <3 !!! !
I think it is a crazy idea having women using the men rest room.
We can all only hope that one of Obama’s daughters suffers the effects of this ungodly administration. It would be poetic justice if one of his own daughters (if they are really his) were raped (or worse) in a bathroom by a deviant trans-sexual using a womens bathroom.
I am an elderly person.. And i say these
Transgender gay people are violating my
Rights. I’m a modest person and i like
My privacy. I say label the doors vagina
And penis. If you had a sex change use the
Proper bathroom . if you’re a woman now
Use the womens bathroom. If you are now
A man use the mens room. There is no
In between.
RIGHT ON! You go!
The LGBT agenda is one of the numerous acts of subterfuge against Americans, added to racial disruption, that the alias, Barack H. Obama, has furthered. While Obama is guilty of the subterfuge that he has inflicted on Americans, he is also responsible for amplifying and accelerating the subterfuge that was started by the George H. W. Bush family. The “October Surprise of 1980,” arranged by George H. W. Bush and William Casey, was developed into the Iran-Contra drug smuggling. The CIA airport in Mena, Arkansas, administered by the Arkansas governor, William Clinton, was a major unloading station. Shifting the blame to Obama for all the disruption going on in the USA and abroad simply disguises the Bush and Clinton families, who initiated the subterfuge. The alias Obama is the most recent of a chain of treasonists, and deserves justice for his share. The share of the criminals in USG’OV that preceded Obama belongs to them.
The governor of NC will prove that humans consist of male and female, each of which group deserves its own toilet, historically established. Folk who pretend to be the opposite of their gender-sex are transvestites. They do not deserve admittance to toilets of their pretended gender. Nor do they deserve separate toilet facilities marked “Transvestites.”
Judges are increasingly gaining insight into the fact that their years of legal training and experience did not qualify them to be puppets of politicians, but rather to interpret the law IAW the intent of the US Constitution. Five of the 9 of the Supreme Court were patriotic supporters of the USConstitution. With the assassination of Justice Scalia in Texas, home of the Bush Headquarters, the count was reduced to 4. Why the other 4 supreme court justices support transvestites, paedophiles and other persons with abnormal sexual adjustments is a valid question.
We come this far and no problem. Why let the Presadent make his own Laws. And congress do nothing. As they have been with Obamo all the way until now.
Obummer is like the devil he needs to be impeached.
<3 <3 Amen <3 <3 !!! !
I guess this keeps Obama occupied until his next vacation
Obama and his muslim cabinet members have done nothing but bring down America. Instead of letting them stay in America they should put them in Prison and bring them to trial for their crimes. All the other illegals can be sent back where they belong. If I call a Company for any information and can’t understand the person on the line I just ask for someone that speaks English. I’ve had them get mad and hang up on me two or three times in a row. Persistence does pay off.
I applaud the Governors backbone to resist the Obama muscle using our kids education monies to more or less coerce the repealing of the bill. I stand strong with Gov. McCrory.
He should be shot….