Speaking with Asheville NPR affiliate
WCQS, the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina said that
an anti-gay bill approved last week in North Carolina may be
unconstitutional.
On Wednesday, North Carolina lawmakers
approved and Republican Governor Pat McCrory signed into law House
Bill 2, which bars any city, town or municipality from enacting
measures that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or
gender identity. The law also makes North Carolina the first state
in the nation to prohibit students in public schools from using the
bathroom that does not conform to their gender at birth. Similar
attempts in South Dakota and Tennessee failed this legislative
session.
Approved during a one-day special
session, the law was a response to a Charlotte LGBT protections
ordinance that was set to take effect on April 1.
Sarah Preston, acting executive
director of the ACLU of NC, said the bill was born out of animus
toward the LGBT community and may put the state at risk of losing
Title IX funding.
“Back in the mid 90s there's a
Supreme Court decision that's comparable to this, in which a state
decided that they were going to revoke the power of localities to
pass protective ordinances,” Preston
said. “And the Supreme Court found that since it was born out
of animus … at the end of the day this was promoting discrimination
and that the state could not do that. They could not revoke that
kind of power. I believe it was under equal protection. … I think
it's a very similar scenario, where you have the Legislature revoking
power from local governments based on animus towards lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender individuals and because of that there's, I
think, some pretty serious constitutionality concerns here.”
Preston added the ACLU is preparing a
challenge to the law.
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