RALEIGH, N.C. _ The North Carolina Senate on Thursday approved a compromise bill that repeals House Bill 2 but restricts future anti-discrimination ordinances in cities and counties.
Opposition and support for the bill did not fall along party lines in the 32-16 vote. Several Triangle Democrats banded together to oppose it; they included Sen. Jay Chaudhuri of Raleigh, Sen. Mike Woodard of Durham, Sen. Floyd McKissick of Durham,, and Sen. Valerie Foushee of Hillsborough, as well Sen. Jeff Jackson of Charlotte and Sen. Don Davis of Greenville.
Senate Democratic Leader Dan Blue of Raleigh and Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican, asked the Senate to approve the compromise.
The bill now goes to the full House, where it there is expected to be a narrower margin of support. If it passes the House, it will go to the governor for his signature.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement overnight that he supported the compromise. Whether the repeal and attached provisions will be sufficient to put the state back in contention to host NCAA sports championships remains to be seen.
"This is a significant compromise from all sides on an issue that has been discussed and discussed and discussed in North Carolina for a long period of time," Berger told the Senate Rules Committee earlier Thursday. "It is something that I think satisfies some people, dissatisfies some people, but it's a good thing for North Carolina."
Blue said many Democrats oppose imposing a moratorium on local non-discrimination ordinances, but he said the repeal takes the state back to what it had before HB2 was enacted in March 2016. Speaking on the Senate floor, Blue said the bill "resets the conversation" about new definitions of discrimination.
"I think this will address issues of who we are, how inclusive we are and whether everyone is valued," Blue said.
HB2 forbids local anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people and requires people in government facilities to use bathrooms that match the gender on their birth certificates.
Opponents of HB2 who say the state LGBT law is discriminatory rallied opposition to the compromise, as did those who think the year-old law should remain in place to protect girls and women from sex offenders who might take advantage of access to public restrooms based on gender identity instead of sex at birth.
There are three provisions in the new bill: Repeal of HB2, leaving regulation of multiple occupancy restrooms, showers or changing facilities to the state, and a moratorium on local ordinances regulating public accommodations or private employment practices until Dec. 1, 2020.
The compromise was reached Wednesday night and released overnight, with the blessings of Cooper, Berger and Republican House Speaker Tim Moore.
Sen. Dan Bishop, a Mecklenburg Republican and key author of HB2, was the only senator to speak on the floor against the new bill.
"This bill is at best a punt, at worst it is a betrayal of principle," Bishop said.
Ned Curran, a former chairman of the Charlotte Chamber and former chairman of the state Board of Transportation under former Gov. Pat McCrory, asked the Senate Rules Committee to pass the bill.
"This is a bill that will benefit the 10 million people of North Carolina and the 100 counties and will make North Carolina a better place than it is today," said Curran, who has been involved in recent negotiations to reach a compromise.
John Rustin of the N.C. Family Policy Council asked the committee to leave HB2 in place.
Sen. Ralph Hise, a Republican from Spruce Pine, said after the meeting that he opposed the bill and didn't appreciate economic pressure from sports leagues and businesses that have protested HB2 for a year.
"Basketball is important to North Carolina, nobody is going to deny that," His said. "But we've been threatened as a state and we took the coward's act and we're backing down. I can't stand for that."
Lawmakers are speeding the bill through the legislature by gutting an unrelated bill, House Bill 142, which has already been passed in the House. If the Senate votes to approve it, the bill will then go directly to the House for a floor vote.
Hise said he understood there are enough votes to pass it in the Senate but he had been told it was much closer in the House.
Equality NC executive director Chris Sgro said after the meeting it is not a return to the status quo, and "keeps North Carolina as the only state in the country that is obsessed with where trans people go to the bathroom.
"If you vote for the bill, you are not a friend of the LGBT community," he said. "This is not leadership, Governor Cooper."
Justin Miller, a Raleigh business owner who says his business has suffered because of HB2, called the compromise bill "a Band-Aid to an awful problem."
