North Carolina state officials reached an agreement to roll back the state’s transgender bathroom bill Monday.
Outgoing Gov. Pat McCrory announced that legislators would return Wednesday to consider repealing House Bill 2, the state’s bathroom bill, reports NBC Washington.
HB2 banned transgenders from using the bathroom that corresponded to their gender identity. It also did not include gender identity and sexual orientation under anti-discrimination protections.
The decision to roll back HB2 comes after the city of Charlotte council announced Monday that it would repeal its own city ordinance that allowed transgenders to use whatever bathroom they pleased.
They will repeal the ordinance based on the contingent that HB2 gets erased by Dec.31.
“Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore assured me that as a result of Charlotte’s vote, a special session will be called … to repeal HB2 in full,” Gov.-elect Roy Cooper said in a statement.
Republican legislators maintained that they passed HB2 to prevent the city ordinance from having any effect; they refused to repeal HB2 until Charlotte got rid of their ordinance. (RELATED: NC Tries to Revise Transgender Bathroom Bill)
Some gay activists are unhappy with the move, claiming that the gay community needs certain protections.
“LGBT rights aren’t a bargaining chip. Charlotte shouldn’t have had to repeal its ordinance in exchange for HB2 to be repealed,” Simone Bell, the Southern Regional Director for Lambda Legal, declared in a statement.
Businesses and celebrities protested North Carolina’s bathroom bill. Some celebrities refused to hold concerts there, while businesses like PayPal declined to bring approximately 400 jobs into the state. The NBA also threatened to pull its 2017 All-Star Game from the state.
The bill also loomed as a key issue in the 2016 gubernatorial election. McCrory, who helped pass the bathroom bill, doubled down on his support for it during his run for re-election. (RELATED: Pat McCrory May Lose The Governorship Over NC’s Trans Bathroom Bill)
Cooper, on the other hand, promised to repeal HB2 because it had been a “disaster” to the state’s economy.
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