The Justice Department warned the State of North Carolina on Wednesday that its new law (HB2) limiting bathroom access violated the civil rights of transgender people, a finding that could mean millions of dollars in lost Federal funds. They said the measure violates Federal law under Title VII, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.
In a letter to Gov. Pat McCrory, Vanita Gupta, the top civil rights lawyer for the Justice Department, said that “both you and the State of North Carolina” were in violation of civil rights law, and gave him until Monday to decide “whether you will remedy these violations.”
A Justice Department official said that Federal officials hoped that the State would agree to comply voluntarily with Federal civil rights law by abandoning the measure. But the department has a number of tools it can use to try to force compliance, including denying Federal funds or asking a court to do so, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In a statement, Mr. McCrory, a Republican, said: “The right and expectation of privacy in one of the most private areas of our personal lives is now in jeopardy. We will be reviewing to determine the next steps.”
Matt McTighe, Executive Director of Freedom for All Americans, an L.G.B.T. rights group, said in a statement Wednesday that “actions have consequences, and Governor McCrory and his legislative allies are now paying the price for this anti-transgender law that they so hurriedly enacted. “HB2 is a solution in a search of a problem that simply doesn’t exist, and lawmakers must take immediate action to fully repeal it,” he said. “The state’s economy and reputation have suffered enough, and now students all across the state stand to lose out on nearly $1 billion in critical funding because of HB2. The livelihoods of North Carolina’s families are at stake, and there is no excuse for inaction.”
The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission held last year that “equal access to restrooms is a significant, basic condition of employment” and that denying access to transgender individuals was discriminatory.
The Justice Department’s threat was not the only front opened Wednesday in the battle over transgender bathroom rights.
In Illinois, a group calling itself Students and Parents for Privacy filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education, the Justice Department, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and the School Directors of Township High School District 211 in Cook County, Ill., seeking to stop the district from “forcing 14- to 17-year-old girls to use locker rooms and restrooms with biological males.”
In November 2015, Federal education authorities ruled that the school district, near Chicago, violated Title IX, the Federal law that forbids discrimination on the basis of sex in public education, when it did not allow a transgender student who said she identifies as a girl to change and shower in the girls’ locker room without restrictions. The fact that the student, who is biologically male, now uses the bathroom and locker rooms at William Fremd High School, the lawsuit states, creates an “intimidating and hostile environment” for girls, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in the United States District Court in the Northern District of Illinois. The suit also asks the court to set aside a Department of Education rule in which transgender students are covered under Title IX.
Meanwhile, in Oxford, Ala., the City Council on Wednesday rescinded an ordinance it had passed the week before that forbade people to use a public restroom that did not match their gender at birth, according to the Alabama news website al.com.
The news service reported that at least one of the three members who voted to rescind the ordinance in the 3-2 vote was influenced by a City attorney’s opinion that the ordinance might be illegal under Title IX.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
No comments:
Post a Comment