North Carolina was thrust into the national spotlight on March 23 of this year when Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law House Bill 2, which undid local nondiscrimination ordinances for LGBTQ people.
The N.C. General Assembly passed the bill earlier that day during a special session that was held in response to a Charlotte LGBTQ nondiscrimination ordinance. The Charlotte ordinance was passed in February and allowed transgender people to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.
McCrory said in a statement following signing HB2 into law that the Charlotte ordinance violated basic expectations of privacy.
HB2 garnered significant criticism and resulted in state civil rights groups, two UNC-system employees and one UNC-system student filing a lawsuit against the legislation, saying it violated LGBTQ people's constitutional rights.
“But this is about more than bathrooms, this is about my job, my community and my ability to get safely through my day and be productive like everyone else in North Carolina," Joaquín Carcaño, a transgender UNC-Chapel Hill employee and plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement in March.
UNC-system president Margaret Spellings and UNC Chancellor Carol Folt both expressed concerns about how HB2 would affect student recruitment and create distress on campus.
HB2 became a focal point of ongoing disputes regarding Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based upon sex. The Obama administration has interpreted Title IX to include gender identity, which would provide protections for transgender students.
In May, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to the UNC system and Gov. McCrory, threatening to remove funding for public schools that do not protect transgender students' rights to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.
McCrory responded to the letter by filing a lawsuit against the DOJ. The DOJ filed a countersuit against McCrory, Secretary Frank Perry, the UNC system, UNC Board of Governors and the N.C. Department of Public Safety.
