The Social Consequences of HB2: A North Carolina Effort to Reverse Civil Protections for Transgender People

On March 23, 2016 in what some may call a coup of the democratic process, the North Carolina legislative body held a special one-day session to pass through the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, otherwise known as House Bill 2 in response to a Charlotte city ordinance passed in February of that same year adding LGBT protections to the non-discrimination policies. In one day, HB2 was introduced on the floor, voted on, and signed into law by then governor, Pat McCrory. In public discourse, former governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, suggested that the bill helped to, “protect young girls from predatory men in bathrooms” (Harrison 2016) in that it limits the use of school and state agency bathrooms and locker rooms designated for, and used by, people based on their assigned sex at birth. A national boycott of North Carolina began. This article discusses the untintended consequences of the culture war which followed.