Lambda Legal and ACLU Ask Court to Block Enforcement of North Carolina’s Anti-Transgender Law

Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of North Carolina today asked a federal court to order an immediate halt to enforcement of a North Carolina law that targets transgender people for discrimination in single-sex facilities.

The three organizations and the law firm of Jenner and Block are challenging the law, House Bill 2, on behalf of six LGBT North Carolinians and members of the ACLU of North Carolina. They filed today’s motion for preliminary injunction while the case proceeds through the court system.

From Kyle Palazzolo, Lambda legal staff attorney:

Each day that transgender North Carolinians are singled out by this harmful law, whether they are at school, at work, or just moving through their daily lives in society is another day the state is causing irreparable harm to an already vulnerable community.

As Attorney General Lynch said this week, "none of us can stand by when a state enters the business of legislating identity and insists that a person pretend to be something they are not, or invents a problem that doesn’t exist as a pretext for discrimination and harassment," and we couldn’t agree more.

From Chris Brook, ACLU of North Carolina legal director:

HB 2 is causing ongoing and serious harm to transgender people in North Carolina and must be put on hold while it is reviewed by the court. The Justice Department has made it clear that HB 2 violates federal law. Gov. McCrory and the North Carolina Legislature wrote into state law discrimination against transgender people who just want to be able to use public facilities safely and securely.

Last week, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against North Carolina and Gov. McCrory for violating Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act, Title IX, and the Violence Against Women Act just hours after North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice that asks a federal court to determine that HB 2 does not violate federal civil rights laws.

Read the press release.