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U.S. NEWSWednesday 24 February
American Living:
Bathrooms become battlegrounds in anti-discrimination debate
JONATHAN DREW Leon Threatt, of Charlotte, speaks against the nondiscrimination ordinance during a City Council spokesman for the Equal-
GARY D. ROBERTSON meeting’s vote on the nondiscrimination ordinance, in Charlotte, N.C. North Carolina’s largest ity Federation, a gay rights
Associated Press city has legalized the ability of transgender people to choose public restrooms corresponding to group, said in an email.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — As their gender identity. The governor calls it a threat to public safety, and some state lawmakers are Charlotte’s ordinance is
bathrooms become bat- vowing to overrule the city. broader than just bath-
tlegrounds in the national rooms, prohibiting hotels
debate over anti-discrim- (Robert Lahser /The Charlotte Observer via AP) for example from refusing
ination laws, a city coun- to rent a room to a lesbian
cil’s decision to protect the bisexual and transgender identify with, said Cathryn Florida, a council member couple, City Attorney Rob-
restroom choices of trans- people have sought to Oakley, an attorney with withdrew a measure similar ert Hagemann stressed.
gender people in Char- build on that momentum the Washington-based Hu- to Charlotte’s last week af- “The restroom issue has
lotte, North Carolina, was by securing broad protec- man Rights Campaign who ter encountering just such gotten an awful lot of at-
cheered Tuesday by rights tions against discrimination helped generate support pressure. tention,” Hagemann said.
advocates as a coura- in cities and states nation- for Charlotte’s ordinance. “We’re currently tracking “The primary aspect of
geous move. But it may not wide. And as conservatives push 192 bills, the vast major- what the council did is to
stand for very long. Most of the 20 largest U.S. back, they are increas- ity of which are anti-LGBT prohibit discrimination in
Gov. Pat McCrory told The cities now enforce state ingly finding that concerns with major themes being public accommodation.
Associated Press that the laws or local ordinances about bathroom encoun- trans bathrooms and rfras That’s not just restrooms.”
bathroom provision denies that include allowances ters resonate more with vot- (religious freedom restora- A turning point was Hous-
privacy rights for people for people to use the bath- ers than other aspects of tion acts) focused on mar- ton, whose city council
who expect to share rest- room of the gender they such laws. In Jacksonville, riage,” Mark Daniel Snyder, approved an ordinance
rooms or locker rooms only similar to Charlotte’s. After
with people born with the a campaign that invoked
same anatomy. concerns about bath-
“It’s an extreme regula- room safety last year, vot-
tion that changes the ba- ers overwhelmingly over-
sic norms of society,” the turned
Republican governor said, the ordinance in a referen-
adding that he would like dum.
the state legislature to pre- “The opposition has really
empt any local govern- run with this inflammatory,
ments from enforcing such discriminatory messaging,
ordinances. “I don’t want and unfortunately they
to have 100 different rules” have found some trac-
across the state, he said. tion,” Oakley said.
As sweeping changes take Transgender advocates,
hold across America in meanwhile, have worried
the wake of the Supreme openly that conservatives
Court’s decision legalizing are using the bathroom
gay marriage last year, ad- issue to drive a wedge
vocates for lesbian, gay, between them and oth-
er members of the LGBT
Few immigrant children deported from US in last 4 years movement.
“It’s absolutely not fair.
ALICIA A. CALDWELL ficial told lawmakers Tues- More than 171,000 children, would be swiftly sent home. What they’re trying to do is
Associated Press day. mostly from Honduras, El Federal law requires that roll back some of the prog-
WASHINGTON (AP) — The The head of Immigration Salvador and Guatemala, children from countries that ress that the LGBT commu-
Obama administration has and Customs Enforce- were arrested at the bor- don’t border the United nity as a whole has made
deported about 4 percent ment’s removal operations, der during that same time. States be transferred to the over the last several years
of the tens of thousands of Thomas Homan, told mem- The number of children care of the Health and Hu- by targeting some of the
unaccompanied child im- bers of the Senate Judi- caught crossing the border man Services Department most vulnerable — and
migrants who have been ciary Committee that 7,643 illegally spiked in 2014 and before being placed with a unfortunately least under-
caught crossing the U.S. immigrants who arrived as the Obama administration sponsor, usually a relative, stood —members of our
border illegally in the last children were sent home promised that those who while they wait for their im- community,” said Demoya
several years, a Homeland between the 2012 and were not eligible for pro- migration case to be heard Gordon, a Lambda Legal
Security Department of- 2015 budget years. tections in the United States by a judge. q staff attorney who works
on its Transgender Rights
Project. q
