NC governor signs bill repealing harmful Charlotte bathroom ordinance

The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Kellie Fiedorek regarding the North Carolina General Assembly’s bipartisan passage of the Public Facilities and Security Act, which invalidates a city of Charlotte ordinance that would have allowed men to enter public bathrooms and locker rooms designated for women, endangering women, children and the elderly. Gov. Pat McCrory’s decision Wednesday to sign the bill ensures that business owners will no longer be subject to substantial fines and potential jail time should they seek to protect their patrons’ safety and security or operate their businesses consistent with their core convictions:

“We commend the governor for keeping his promise to immediately address the Charlotte ordinance to ensure that North Carolina businesses, women, and children are protected. Sixty-nine percent of North Carolinians agreed that the ordinance was unreasonable and unsafe in forcing women and young girls to undress, shower, or engage in other private activities in the presence of men. The privacy rights and safety of North Carolina citizens shouldn’t be cast aside or used as a political pawn for special interest groups that desire to impose their agenda to create a genderless society. The governor’s decision to sign the General Assembly’s bill repealing the ordinance was just common sense.”

Because of the leadership of the North Carolina General Assembly and the governor after the assembly’s special session Wednesday, the new law will clarify that bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers are limited to persons of the same biological sex. It also clarifies that the state, not local cities and municipalities, is responsible to determine the employment relationship in order to avoid a patchwork of confusing local employment laws that would be harmful to commerce, labor, and trade in the state.