RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The federal lawsuit challenging a new North Carolina law that halts Charlotte’s anti-discrimination rules and directs where transgender students must use the bathroom says the measure specifically singles out LGBT people for “disfavored treatment.”
The lawsuit, filed Monday morning, names two transgender people who work or study on University of North Carolina system campuses, which now must comply with last week’s law. The two were born female and now consider themselves male but have not changed their birth certificates. They say the inability to use the men’s restroom or locker room will cause them fear and might lead to harassment.
The lawsuit also criticizes members of the General Assembly for their arguments that Charlotte’s new ordinance needed to be overturned to protect women and children. The ordinance allowed transgender people to use the restroom aligned with their gender identity.
Corporations have criticized the law, but Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and allies defend it as providing uniform rules across the state. The legislature met in special session last Wednesday to pass the law in response to a Charlotte ordinance that allowed transgender people to use restrooms aligned with their gender identity.
