“If we want to preserve the proud heritage of North Carolina, it is time for our leadership to consider a substantial and immediate repeal of HB 2.”
–North Carolina State Sen. Tamara Barringer (R-Cary), the first Republican to call for the repeal of the state’s anti-LGBT HB 2 law, which restricts transgender people’s access to restrooms and repeals local LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances.
Although Barringer has called for repeal of the law, she insists she still doesn’t want biological males to use women’s locker rooms or bathrooms.
“Whenever legislative bodies rush to judgment on important public policy decisions, there are unintended consequences,” Barringer said in an emailed statement to The News & Observer. “With the most recent announcements impacting our state, there are simply too many examples of very sad and unfortunate ramifications and unintended effects of HB 2.”
“I did not realize the consequences of this bill, that it would have worldwide consequences, and they just keep piling up,” Barringer told WRAL. “So, at this point, I’m willing to stand up and say, ‘Let’s put the brakes on it. Let’s get together and find a common solution that we call can live with and move forward.”
Barringer represents one of the more competitive districts in the state senate, and faces a strong challenge in November from Wake County school board member Susan Evans. A spokesman for Evans issued a statement saying her last-minute conversion won’t help Barringer save her seat.
“When she voted for HB 2 in March, Sen. Barringer knew what she was doing,” said Evans campaign spokesman Dustin Ingalls. “She knew the legal and economic consequences her constituents would experience. Only now that she’s in danger of losing her seat does she waffle.
“Her latest change of mind is certainly not a change of heart. It’s a purely political move designed to make voters forget that she is responsible for the loss of jobs and millions of dollars in economic investment in her district.”
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed two anti-transgender bills into law, one of which bars transgender people from public restrooms matching their gender identity and the other banning transgender women and girls from female-designated sports teams.
The laws were passed on party-line votes in both legislative chambers, with Republicans voting in the affirmative.
The first law requires public schools, correctional facilities, other public buildings -- including the state Capitol -- and domestic violence shelters to designate bathrooms, changing facilities, and sleeping areas for a single sex -- male or female. Entry to such spaces will be based on a person's assigned sex at birth, as determined by a person's chromosomal makeup.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, of the District of Columbia, issued a preliminary injunction blocking President Donald Trump's executive order banning transgender people from enlisting in the military, which also includes expelling transgender service members from the Armed Forces.
The federal judge found the Trump administration's ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because it discriminates against trans service members on the basis of their transgender status and sex.
Reyes said Trump's executive order was "soaked in animus."
Defying an executive order from President Donald Trump, a federal judge blocked the U.S. Department of Justice from transferring 12 transgender female inmates to male prisons.
The Bureau of Prisons was slated to relocate the inmates to comply with a Trump executive order stating that the U.S. government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, as valid.
That executive order also pledged to ban people assigned male at birth from accessing female-designated spaces, including single-sex accommodations in prisons.
The executive order also prohibits federal funds from being used for any medical treatment, procedure, or drug that would assist an inmate in transitioning or changing their outward appearance in a way that would not align with their assigned sex at birth.
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