March 29, 2016 | Sex & Society

Rights groups sue North Carolina over anti-gay law

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Lambda Legal and other equality groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the recently passed North Carolina law that undid local LGBT rights by-laws and restricted transgender people’s access to restrooms.

Last week Republicans in the state legislature convened a special session, ramming through a bill which was signed by Governor Pat McCrory the same day. The bill cancelled an existing LGBT rights ordinance in Charlotte and barred  local municipalities from enacting gay rights ordinances in the future. It also explicitly barred transgender people from using public restrooms of the gender they identify with.

The lawsuit argues the law violates people’s equal protection, privacy, and liberty rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and their civil rights under Title IX of the Education Act of 1972.

Donald Trump. Ted Cruz. Given the climate of fear and hatred that the front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination are fomenting, should we be surprised that it is percolating down to the states? 

ACLU and Lambda Legal sue North Carolina over anti-LGBT law [Frontiers]