North Carolina GOP Scraps Plan for a Transgender ‘License to Pee’ After NBA Pans It

Lawmakers Will Try to Pass One ‘Fix’ to HB2

North Carolina Republican Speaker Tim Moore has scrapped the idea of a transgender license to pee after the NBA reviewed a draft plan of GOP legislation and made clear it would not support it. Lawmakers may attempt to pass a fix to the sweepingly broad HB2, which Governor Pat McCrory has asked for: allowing citizens to sue over employment discrimination claims in state rather than just federal court.

The News & Observer’s Colin Campbell broke the news of both issues Friday afternoon: 

House Republicans had drafted a bill that perhaps perfectly explained just how little they actually understand about transgender people. The legislative “fix” to HB2 would have provided some form of state-issued ID card for transgender people that would allow them to use public restrooms that correspond with their gender. Unfortunately, to obtain the card, a transgender person would actually have to provide a doctor’s note verifying that they have completed medical transition, which is appalling. Many transgender people do not wish to undergo surgery or medical treatments, and for those who do, many cannot afford them.

The NBA announced Thursday it would not support the bill, further endangering the 2017 All-Star Game, which is scheduled to be held in Charlotte in February. The NBA has strongly suggested it will move the game if HB2 is still in effect as currently written.

HB2 has cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars, and the loss of the All-Star Game could potentially put that number at one billion. 

Incredibly, Moore told reporters today, “there was never an intent to limit the right of anybody to seek redress in state court,” which is exactly one of the many things HB2 directly and intentionally does. “So we have some language we’re looking at to clarify that,” as Campbell reports.

Perhaps even more incredibly, Moore commented on the NBA’s complete panning of the draft bill to create a transgender ID to pee bill, saying that the NBA should look at the possible legislative fix that would allow residents to sue over discrimination issues in state court as a sufficient fix for all of HB2, including ban on transgender citizens using public restrooms of their gender.

“I certainly hope that the NBA will keep the All-Star Game here,” Moore told reporters. “The process I don’t think lends itself to pass legislation perhaps that they might want to see. I hope that they – and frankly every business that had concerns about discrimination arguments – see fixing this issue with access to state courts as fixing that.”