RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina could face another HB2-style showdown in the coming weeks, after a ban on cities enacting non-discrimination rules for local businesses expires Dec. 1.
But with city officials publicly silent so far, it remains to be seen where in the state — or even if — new changes might start.
Transgender and gay rights activists have already been pushing cities to start enacting new protections. Kendra Johnson, executive director of the Raleigh-based LGBT advocacy group Equality NC, said a big focus will be housing. She said landlords shouldn’t be able to deny people housing due to their sexuality or gender identity.
“You have people who have transitioned but have to hide that fact for fear of becoming homeless in the middle of a pandemic,” Johnson said.
Allison Scott, the policy director for the Asheville-based Campaign for Southern Equality, said health care access should also be at the top of the list.
Bathrooms started North Carolina down the roller coaster of HB2 being passed, then repealed but replaced with a similar bill whose provisions are now partially expiring. But Scott said there are different rules local governments can focus on instead, to help LGBT people like her “in the full sphere of their lives.”
It’s unclear, however, what if anything local governments actually are planning to do.
Beau Mills, executive director of the N.C. Metro Mayors Coalition, said he isn’t aware of any city that plans to act in early December as soon as the ban lifts. Those that might be interested in exploring options, he said, are still discussing it.
“I am aware that cities, some municipalities, are certainly looking at it,” Mills said in an interview. “As the Dec. 1 date approaches, as they do with many important issues, they’ll be talking” with local residents, business leaders and others.
In Charlotte last month, news station WBTV reported that local officials there have been working behind the scenes with other city leaders on new ordinances they can pass once the ban lifts. But Mills later pushed back against that report, telling the NC Insider that mayors around the state did arrange a presentation on the topic from Equality NC but didn’t necessarily endorse any plans.
And mayors have been largely silent. Multiple elected officials from around the Triangle did not respond to recent requests for comment from The News & Observer.
“It’s not surprising that folks are hesitant to state their plans,” Johnson said. “They don’t want controversy coming their way, especially after the year we’ve just had in 2020.”
But Johnson plans to get Equality NC’s supporters to start pushing for change anyway. Scott said the Campaign for Southern Equality will do the same. The two groups are co-hosting a virtual town hall on Dec. 1, the day the ban ends, to fire up supporters. Details about who is speaking, and how to watch, can be found in the groups’ Facebook event page.
They’re hopeful that even if the Republican-led legislature doesn’t approve, GOP lawmakers won’t stop cities from making their own decisions again, given recent history.
“I can’t speak for legislators,” Scott said. “But I don’t think anybody has the appetite to wade back into an HB2-style law.”
Spokespeople for Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, the top Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly, did not respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this month in an opinion article published in the North State Journal, Tami Fitzgerald, the leader of the N.C. Family Values Coalition, a conservative Christian group, urged cities not to pass any pro-LGBT ordinances even after the ban does expire.
“These ordinances are a Trojan horse to weaponize hate and hostility toward small business owners and private citizens with sincerely held religious beliefs,” she wrote.
In an email Tuesday, she said she wasn’t aware of any cities or counties planning to immediately act — but that they should expect to be sued if they do.
“We certainly believe that the General Assembly should make the ban on local ordinances permanent when it returns,” Fitzgerald said. “Likewise, we would expect Governor Cooper to sign a bill to that effect, since he helped negotiate this ban in the first place. If cities pass ordinances of this kind before the legislature has an opportunity to act, however, they should expect a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of their ordinances.”
