One step forward, two steps back: how North Carolina seems to be heading back to HB2 era

The year of 2016 was defined by untraditional politics — from the election of Donald Trump to North Carolina denying then Gov. Pat McCrory a second gubernatorial term. 

The latter probably wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the implementation of House Bill 2 (HB2), also known as the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act. The controversial legislation had an unprecedented impact on North Carolina’s economy and national image, and ultimately, it was repealed in 2017. 

Fast forward to 2024: HB2’s original sponsor and supporter Dan Bishop is running as the Republican candidate for attorney general. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is also the Republican nominee for governor, has implied he supports bathroom legislation for transgender individuals.

North Carolina is at a turning point: are we going to go back to the days of economic and social backlash from HB2-like policies, or are we going to move forward? 

What is HB2?

The Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act took effect on March 23, 2016, and was signed into law partially as a response to actions taken by the City Council of Charlotte, which approved an ordinance protecting transgender people from gender identity discrimination. 

HB2 had three main components, according to North Carolina law firm Riddle and Brantley:

1. It required people to use the bathroom corresponding to their biological sex, defining “biological sex” as the designation appearing on an individual’s birth certificate.
2. It prohibited local governments from altering the minimum wage.
3. It banned people from filing discrimination lawsuits in the state court.

The U.S. Dept. of Justice sent a letter to then Gov. McCrory, citing the state for violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits gender identity discrimination. However, legal repercussions were the least of Republicans’ worries. 

Many businesses who planned to expand into North Carolina — including PayPal and Deutche Bank — decided to move their corporate offices elsewhere. Many musicians and artists, including Lady GaGa, also canceled their North Carolina dates. The most publicized, however, was when the NCAA moved several championship basketball games from North Carolina to other states and threatened to ban the state from hosting any championships until 2022 unless lawmakers repeal HB2.

The Associated Press reported the state lost $3.76 billion as a result of HB2. The PayPal facility which was expected to open in North Carolina would’ve contributed an estimated $2.66 billion to the state’s economy. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan — who leads the largest company based in North Carolina — told AP that “companies are moving to other places, because they don’t face issue[s] that they face here.”

Gov. Roy Cooper, who was elected after HB2 was instated, told AP he believed the policy only harmed the state’s economy and its reputation. 

“We now know that, based on conservative estimates, North Carolina’s economy stands to lose nearly $4 billion because of House Bill 2,” he said. “That means fewer jobs and less money in the pockets of middle class families. We need to fix this now.”

Just a little under a year after HB2 was approved, the state legislature repealed the “bathroom bill” as a part of a compromise policy which stated local governments couldn’t pass non-discriminatory ordinances. 

Bringing back HB2 rhetoric

Anti-trans rhetoric and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has been on the rise across the U.S. in recent years, and in North Carolina, there have been multiple policies signed into law targeting queer residents. 

There are several politicians who have enabled and/or engaged in harmful legislation and sentiments, but one of the most notable is Lt. Gov. Robinson. Robinson won the Republican nomination in North Carolina’s gubernatorial race back in March. Though Robinson came into office after the repeal of HB2, his campaign and speaking engagements show the Lt. Gov.’s desire to return to some of North Carolina’s darkest days. 

Robinson’s campaign has focused on LGBTQ+ topics, but specifically, he has been the champion for demonizing North Carolina’s queer and trans residents. During one of his rallies, Robinson said trans women should be “arrested” if they go into a women’s bathroom and instead, they should “find a corner outside somewhere” to relieve themselves.

“We’re going to defend women in this state,” he said, according to a video of his campaign stop in Cary. “That means if you’re a man on Friday night, and all the sudden on Saturday, you feel like a woman, and you want to go in the women’s bathroom in the mall, you will be arrested — or whatever we got to do to you.”

Fellow conservative candidates called out Robinson throughout the primary, including Salisbury attorney Bill Graham, who was endorsed by U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis. 

“Mark Robinson will lose and hurt all GOP candidates if he is the nominee,” Graham spokesman Alex Baltzegar said in an email to WUNC. “His comments about the Holocaust being hogwash along with his demeaning comments about women will wreck GOP chances for regaining the White House and the governorship here in North Carolina.”

Robinson isn’t the only anti-trans candidate running for a statewide office — the brain behind HB2, Bishop, is vying to become North Carolina’s next attorney general.

HB2 isn’t the only instance of Bishop’s blatant disregard for LGBTQ+ people — in 2012, he was a public advocate for North Carolina’s Amendment 1, which banned same-sex marriage until the court case Obergefell v. Hodges made same-sex marriage the law of the land. As a Mecklenburg County Commissioner, Bishop criticized a proposed ordinance to bar discrimination against gay folks, saying it was “either a political stunt or a serious dagger at the heart of marriage.”

The Republican’s true feelings regarding the queer community was later revealed through Bishop’s email correspondence obtained by the Charlotte Business Journal (CBJ). One of Bishop’s supporters contacted him, writing to not “cave in to the Politically Correct Taliban! Y’all should have all of the sane states to coordinate and pass these bills on the same day so one state does not have to stand up to these pompous asses alone.”

Bishop’s response: “I LOVE that idea. Taliban. Love that too. Not giving up. Ever.”

It didn’t end there, either. Just a few hours after PayPal announced it would be moving its facility elsewhere, Bishop wrote nothing could stop him from advocating for HB2-esque legislation.

“I don’t fear man. I fear God. So I won’t be backing down,” Bishop wrote. “And the good news is that right now the GOP caucuses in [the] House and Senate are hanging tough. But today was a difficult day, and I suspect if it gets worse, we will begin to hear capitulation talk. The best hope is that (N.C. Senate President Pro Tempore) Phil Berger has nerves of steel, and because of that, I am pretty confident that the Senate will not be changing that law. At least not in this session.”

HB2 was ultimately repealed less than a year later, and North Carolina’s Republicans had left the issue largely in the past until the last couple of years. Robinson has reignited the anti-trans flame in North Carolina, and Bishop and other politicians will enable those discriminatory policies to be instated once again.

So, it’s up to voters to decide where the Tar Heel state will go.

Will North Carolina take a step forward and move on from its past, or will it move two steps back and lose billions of dollars in economic opportunities?

The choice is yours.