‘Today We Repealed House Bill Two’ Gov. Cooper Says. Except They Didn’t.
In an effort to be allowed to host NCAA games, North Carolina Republican lawmakers, literally in the dead of night, filed a bill they claimed repeals the sweeping and unconstitutional law known as HB2. And exactly as they did to pass HB2, less than 24 hours later, with no public notice or comment allowed, the bill supposedly repealing HB2 passed through the state legislature and was signed into law.
At about 4 PM Thursday, Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat who won by opposing HB2, signed into law a bill that does not actually repeal HB2. Transgender people in the Tar Heel State are still barred from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identity. And for almost the next four years no locality can pass a nondiscrimination ordinance.
It’s entirely unclear how North Carolina elected officials can claim to have repealed HB2, when in reality nothing has changed.
But their hopes are the NCAA will see things differently, allowing them to gain the hundreds of millions of dollars they would have lost in revenue over the next five years – the amount of time North Carolina was about to be blocked from hosting games.
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TIMELINE:
Breaking: North Carolina Senate Passes HB2 ‘Repeal’ Bill
Controversial Deal Reached to Immediately – But Only Partially – Repeal North Carolina’s HB2
AP: HB2 Will Cost North Carolina $3.76 Billion
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