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North Carolina, US, square off over transgender rights
| CNN | - |
(CNN)
The United States and North Carolina tangled over transgender rights on
Monday, with the Justice Department filing a civil rights lawsuit over
the state's so-called bathroom bill and state officials defiantly filing
suits against the federal ...
North Carolina, U.S., square off over transgender rights
(CNN)The
United States and North Carolina tangled over transgender rights on
Monday, with the Justice Department filing a civil rights lawsuit over
the state's so-called bathroom bill and state officials defiantly filing
suits against the federal directive to stop the implementation of the
controversial legislation.
Also,
a major player in North Carolina -- the state's public university
system -- defied the governor and legislature and told the Justice
Department on Monday it intends to act "in compliance with federal law"
as it relates to House Bill 2, known as HB2.
The
Justice Department seeks declaratory relief and threatens to curtail
federal funding to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and
the University of North Carolina.
With
hundreds of millions of dollars in funding at stake, UNC System
President Margaret Spellings said longstanding policy prohibits
university personnel from discriminating on the basis of, among other
things, gender identity, sex, or sexual orientation.
Attorney
General Loretta Lynch, announcing the U.S. legal action to reporters on
Monday, cast the bathroom bill issue as the latest civil rights
struggle of the era.
"It
was not so very long ago that states, including North Carolina, had
other signs above restrooms, water fountains, and on public
accommodations, keeping people out based on a distinction without a
difference. We've moved beyond those dark days," Lynch said.
The
act bans people from using public bathrooms that do not correspond with
their biological sex. Since its passage in March, North Carolina has
become a national battleground on the issue of transgender rights. It
has drawn a flurry of condemnation from civil liberties groups, LGBT
advocates and major businesses. It has also won praise from groups like
the Family Research Council.
Donald Trump against North Carolina bathroom bill 02:27
After
the law's passage, musicians Bruce Springsteen, Demi Lovato, Nick
Jonas, and the bands Pearl Jam and Boston canceled concerts in the
state. Those cancellations have cost one major venue nearly $200,000 in ticket sales.
PayPal and Deutsche Bank have both canceled plans to expand into North Carolina.
The
Justice Department said last week that "access to sex-segregated
restrooms and other workplace facilities consistent with gender identity
is a term, condition or privilege of employment. Denying such access to
transgender individuals, whose gender identity is different from their
gender assigned at birth, while affording it to similarly situated
non-transgender employees, violates Title VII," a section of the Civil
Rights Act prohibiting discrimination against workers on the basis of
sex, race, color, national origin, and religion.
The federal government demanded the state "remedy" the act or risk being in violation of federal law.
Instead,
Gov. Pat McCrory filed a lawsuit calling the Justice Department's
position a "radical reinterpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act." Top state legislators, Phil Berger and Tim Moore, also filed a
complaint against the Justice Department.
But
Lynch on Monday said the legislature and governor put the state in
"direct opposition to federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the
basis of sex and gender identity. More to the point, they created
state-sponsored discrimination against transgender individuals who
simply seek to engage in the most private of functions in a place of
safety and security, a right taken for granted by most of us."
After
the federal government asked the state to certify by the end of the day
Monday that it would not comply with or implement the bill's
restriction on bathroom access, Lynch said the state requested an
extension and that had been under "active consideration."
Instead, the governor and the state chose another course: a lawsuit.
"But
instead of replying to our offer or providing a certification, this
morning, the state of North Carolina and its governor chose to respond
by suing the Department of Justice. As a result of their decisions, we
are now moving forward," Lynch said.
The
federal suit also says the state is in violation of Title IX, the
Education Acts Amendment of 1972 that bans gender discrimination in
education, and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act that
outlaws discrimination on the basis of sex.
"This
action is about a great deal more than bathrooms," Lynch said. "This
is about the dignity and the respect that we accord our fellow citizens
and the laws that we as a people and as a country have enacted to
protect them."
Loretta Lynch's North Carolina bathroom bill statement 07:03
Lynch
said there have been "discriminatory responses to historic moments of
progress": the Jim Crow laws that followed the Emancipation
Proclamation, the resistance to Brown V. Board of Education, and the
"proliferation of state bans on same-sex unions that were intended to
stifle any hope that gay and lesbian Americans might one day be afforded
the right to marry."
"That right,
of course, is now recognized as a guarantee embedded in our
Constitution. And in the wake of that historic triumph, we have seen
bill after bill in state after state taking aim at the LGBT community,"
she said.
She told transgender people that the Obama administration "will do everything we can to protect you going forward."
'Not a protected class'
McCrory's
communications director Josh Ellis said after Lynch's remarks that the
governor is "appropriately seeking legal certainty to a complex issue
impacting employers and students throughout the country" but "in
contrast, the attorney general is using divisive rhetoric to advance the
Obama administration's strategy of making laws that bypass the
constitutional authority of Congress and our courts."
The
act puts in place a statewide policy that bans individuals from using
public bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex and
stops cities from passing anti-discrimination ordinances to protect gay
and transgender identity. That power is reserved for the state under the
new law.
North Carolina officials
defend the act and said it doesn't violate federal law. The state also
said the United States didn't give the state enough time to deal with
the matter.
McCrory said Monday
that he requested an additional two weeks to respond but was told he
would be granted one week, and only if he issued a statement concurring
with the Justice Department.
The lawsuit
filed by the governor and Public Safety Secretary Frank Perry calls the
demand that the state "remedy" the legislation by Monday or risk being
in violation of federal law "a baseless and blatant overreach" and said
it is making a "radical reinterpretation of Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act."
McCrory's argument
also said the state of North Carolina hasn't been given enough time to
respond and that the federal government is overstepping its authority.
Us + public bathrooms? It's complicated 01:32
In
a Monday news conference, McCrory blamed the city of Charlotte for
raising the issue of gender identity and public restrooms. The matter
was not on the state's agenda, he said, until the city imposed a mandate that "caused major privacy concerns about males entering female facilities and females entering male facilities."
Because,
he said, this is now a national issue -- and could affect every U.S.
company with more than 15 employees -- McCrory called on Congress to
revisit the anti-discrimination provisions under Titles VII and IX.
"Our nation is one nation, especially when it comes to fighting discrimination, which I wholeheartedly support," McCrory said.
North
Carolina homes in on Title VII in its lawsuit, saying precedence is
clear: "Transgender status is not a protected class under Title VII,"
and it cites a half-dozen cases that it says back its stance. Only
Congress can change this, the lawsuit says.
Does North Carolina law endanger transgender citizens? 02:46
Even
if the state felt transgender individuals were afforded federal
protection, the Justice Department demands overstep, the state suit
says, because the law "allows accommodations based on special
circumstances, including but not limited to transgender individuals."
In
a statement announcing the lawsuit, McCrory said the federal government
was trying to tell every government agency and company employing more
than 15 people "that men should be allowed to use a women's locker room,
restroom or shower facility."
He said later that the "new, complex and emotional issue" pitted privacy against equality.
The lawsuit emphasizes that no one is facing discrimination because the law applies equally to everyone.
"All
state employees are required to use the bathroom and changing
facilities assigned to a person of their same biological sex, regardless
of gender identity, or transgender status," it says.
The lawsuit filed by Berger,
North Carolina Senate president pro tempore and Moore, state House
Speaker, reflected the views of many of the bill's supporters that
people "expect to encounter only other people of the same biological
sex" when they are in intimate setting such as public bathrooms.
It
says the "ideological extremity -- and utter unworkability -- of the
department's position on the issues in this case is astonishing."
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