A lesbian couple has joined the lawsuit against North Carolina’s new LGBT law, alleging a fertility clinic cancelled their appointment because they are lesbians.
Kelly Trent and Beverly Newell say a clinic where they had an appointment called and cancelled April 1, saying the state’s new LGBT law allowed them to refuse to serve thecouple. The clinic has denied the allegations and said the claims are “trumped-up,” The Charlotte Observer reports. The couple insists they were told the clinic “will not be accepting same-sex clients at this time.”
If the allegations are true, it typifies the kind of discrimination LGBT activists warned would come from the law.
“It’s unnerving to know that we could be turned away by any business for being a same-sex couple and have no recourse because of HB2,” Newell said in a statement. “HB2 has encouraged this type of conduct and we no longer have the ability to file discrimination complaints when this type of thing happens in our home city of Charlotte. The bill has made it OK to harm LGBT people. The state of North Carolina is better than this.”
Charlotte’s city council passed an ordinance to allow people to use the bathroom they say aligns with their true gender, regardless of their biological gender. Supporters of the ordinance described it as an anti-discrimination bill that protects transgender people, but opponents said men would exploit it to legally use women’s restrooms and locker rooms. In response to the city’s ordinance, the state passed a law blocking local governments from passing LGBT ordinances and saying people must use the bathroom that corresponds with the gender on their birth certificate.
The ACLU, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU of North Carolina filed suit in late March saying the new law allows businesses to refuse to serve or hire LGBT people and leaves them no legal recourse. The LGBT laws have become a hot topic leading to multiple boycotts. Georgia’s legislature passed a similar bill in March, but the state’s governor vetoed it after a slew of large businesses in the state voiced their opposition. Mississippi passed a law in April saying people can refuse service based on their belief that sex belongs within marriage, that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and that gender corresponds with your anatomical gender at birth. That law was met with outrage as well.
“I was shocked,” Trent told The Charlotte Observer. “Once I hung up the phone, the reality set in and I was heartbroken. I felt shame.”
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