Team Challenging North Carolina’s H.B. 2 Responds to U.S. Supreme Court Decision to Hear Case on Virginia High School Discriminatory Restroom Policy

Washington – The U.S. Supreme Court today announced it will hear a case brought by the Gloucester County School Board in Virginia that adopted a discriminatory restroom policy that segregates transgender students from their peers and bars high school senior Gavin Grimm from using the restroom that matches his gender.

In response, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of North Carolina, and Lambda Legal, the LGBT advocates challenging North Carolina’s House Bill 2 (H.B. 2), the state law that bans transgender people from the restrooms that match their gender, released the following statement:

“We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will affirm the sound decision from the Fourth Circuit and recognize the profound harms from rules that ban transgender individuals from using the restroom. For Gavin and other transgender students who are barred from using appropriate restrooms, every day these exclusionary and discriminatory policies are in place is extremely harmful. We will continue to fight H.B. 2 on behalf of transgender people across North Carolina.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of North Carolina, Lambda Legal and the law firm of Jenner & Block are challenging H.B. 2 in federal court on behalf of four LGBT North Carolinians. In August, a federal district court blocked the University of North Carolina from enforcing the discriminatory law against three transgender plaintiffs, finding that the challengers are likely to succeed in their argument that the law violates Title IX. The groups are appealing that ruling to seek broader relief for all transgender people in North Carolina.

The ACLU and Lambda Legal lawsuit, Carcaño v. McCrory, was filed days after H.B. 2 was passed by the North Carolina General Assembly and signed by Governor Pat McCrory. In the lawsuit, the groups argue that through the law, North Carolina sends a purposeful message that LGBT people are second-class citizens who are undeserving of the privacy, respect, and protections afforded to others in the state and that transgender individuals are shut out of public life by forcing them to use restrooms and changing facilities that don’t match who they are.

The complaint argues that H.B. 2 violates Title IX by discriminating against students and school employees on the basis of sex. It also argues the law is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment by discriminating on the basis of sex and sexual orientation, and violates the privacy and medical decision making rights of transgender people.

To read more about the case: http://www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/cases/nc_carcano-v-mccrory