NYT takes on North Carolina’s 'bait-and-switch' repeal of the HB2 'bathroom bill'

When North Carolina lawmakers enacted a sham repeal Thursday of the state's anti-LGBTQ "bathroom bill" known as HB2, they locked in discrimination against gay and transgender individuals for the foreseeable future. Though the new law eliminated the requirement that restrooms used by transgender individuals be dictated by the gender assigned to them at birth, it provided no statewide nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people while simultaneously prohibiting local jurisdictions from filling that yawning gap in leadership.

While all this was business as usual for state's Republican lawmakers—who enacted the job/revenue killing law in the first place—it was a stunning turnabout for the Democrats, writes the New York Times.

It’s mystifying that Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat whose narrow election in November was seen as something of a referendum on H.B. 2, would regard the amended law as a suitable compromise. The repeal law did away with the birth certificate requirement, which was unenforceable all along because it would have turned law enforcement officials into genital inspectors. But it bars schools and other government entities from adopting policies allowing transgender people to use the restroom of their choice. And it still prohibits anti-discrimination ordinances until 2020.

Mr. Cooper said the compromise with the Republican-controlled legislature was “not perfect,” but he held out hope that the repeal would start to “repair our reputation.” He and other Democrats who supported the compromise said they concluded that a modest step toward undoing the law was the best they could hope for while Republicans have veto-proof majorities in the legislature. That is misguided. The deal was struck days after The Associated Press reported that the backlash against the law would cost North Carolina at least $3.7 billion in business over 12 years.