House Bill 2 was passed by the General Assembly in response to a local ordinance that passed in Charlotte, NC by a 7 –4 vote. The ordinance was instituted to protect gay, lesbian, and transgender people in places of public accommodation—such as bars, restaurants, and stores.
It has five major parts with only one small section dealing with gender specific bathroom laws:
1. HB 2 requires public schools and public agencies to have single sex multiple occupancy bathrooms and changing facilities.
2. HB 2 prevents all local ordinances, regulations, resolutions, or policies from imposing any require-ments on employers in regards to compensation of employees.
3. HB 2 prohibits cities and counties from requiring private contractors to abide by regulations or con-trols on employment practices or to mandate or prohibit provision of goods, services, or accommo-dations to any member of the public, except as required by State law.
4. HB 2 supersedes and prevents any local ordinance, regulation, resolution, or policy that regulates or imposes any requirements on employers in regards to discrimination practices in employment.
5. HB 2 supersedes and creates a State law to prohibit any municipality or local ordinance from creat-ing rules, regulations, resolutions, or policies that pertain to discrimination policies in a place of pub-lic accommodation.
Prior to HB2, there was no law governing gender specific requirements for bathrooms. The only laws in NC dealing with bathrooms existed under building code laws and designated the number of bath-rooms that were needed for the number of people each building could legally hold.
HB 2 also changes the state’s “Wage and Hour Act,” by pre-venting any local government (city, town, or county), from reg-ulating wage levels, hours of labor or benefits of private em-ployers. This means that the City of Henderson and the Town of Warrenton cannot adopt any ordinances to raise the minimum wage. Prior to HB 2 no such mandate existed.
Read more of the newsletter here: April 2016 Baskerville newsletter.pdf