Mark Barrett

mbarrett@citizen-times.com



RALEIGH – Thousands of demonstrators came to the capital Monday to either urge legislators coming to town for the first day of their regular session to stand firm in their support of HB2 or to throw it in the trash.

About 200 people attended an event Monday morning to deliver to Gov. Pat McCrory papers groups said contained 150,000 or more signatures seeking repeal of the law. Perhaps 3,000 people rallied at midday in favor of HB2 and more than 1,000 demonstrated against the law in late afternoon.

About 50 opponents were arrested at sit-ins at the Legislative Building.

How much difference the events will make will become clearer during the session expected to last into summer.

Four Democrats filed a bill to repeal the law, and one bill sponsor said others to change the law will probably be filed in coming days.

Rep. Darren Jackson, D-Wake, said HB2 should be struck "before the pushback nationally does real and long-term harm."

But he conceded he knows of no Republican legislators, who make up the majority in the House and Senate, who have publicly announced support for repeal.

House Speaker Tim Moore told the rally in favor of HB2 that legislators "should be proud" of the law. Senate leader Phil Berger said last week he opposes repealing any of the law's main components.

Some speakers at the HB2 support rally were almost incredulous that anyone would oppose the law. The law says people must use the bathroom or dressing room in government buildings that corresponds to the sex listed on their birth certificate and prohibits cities and counties from adopting ordinances to prohibit discrimination against LGBT people.

"Can you believe we're talking about this today? I feel a like Alice in Wonderland." Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wilson, told the crowd.

"Has this nation gone crazy? Has this nation gone nuts?" asked Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam, R-Wake.

Supporters complained the media had misrepresented what is in the law, adopted in the span of about 12 hours during a March 23 special session of the General Assembly, and entertainers and large companies staying away from the state after HB2's passage were hypocritical.

Rep. Dan Bishop, R-Mecklenberg, called actions against the state as a result of HB2 "a media-fueled carpet bombing" and the boycotts "a new form of activism that is dangerous and virulent."

Keeping men out of women's restrooms was a big concern of both speakers and those attending.

"I came out here against the pedophiles that want to take over this country," said Jerry Harmon, a Statesville resident at the rally.

Theresa Hillman, of Harnett County, said she came because, "I don't want men in my bathroom. I don't want men in my children's bathroom."

Both rallies had strongly religious features.

Singers warmed up the pro-HB2 crowd up with gospel hymns and participants pledged allegiance to the American flag, the Christian flag and the King James version of the Bible at the outset.

At the anti-HB2 event, the Rev. Jennifer Copeland told the crowd there are people of faith on both sides of the debate.

To her, "Every single person is loved by God and so laws that treat certain people as less than equal are sinful laws," she said.

The Rev. William Barber, head of the state NAACP, told the crowd HB2 is the latest in a long line of ploys by people hostile to the interests of people of color, the working class and others to stir up fear of others to achieve their political goals.

He recalled white politicians in the 1800s using fear of African-Americans to justify segregation.

"They began to portray black men as ravishing beasts eager to rape white women," Barber said.

HB2 is another attempt to get people riled up to keep its backers in office, he said.

"They know that it's unconstitutional and they know that it's going to waste taxpayers' money trying to defend it (in the courts) ... but they don't care because it's a headline for election purposes," he said.

Barber warned HB2 opponents against settling for modifications to HB2 that would restore the ability of North Carolinians to sue over employment discrimination in state courts or of local governments to set minimum wages.

Every speaker at the opposition rally said the law must be repealed entirely.

Joaquin Carcano, a transgender man who is a UNC Chapel Hill employee, called the law "an act of violence which seeks to deny our existence." He is a plaintiff in a lawsuit brought to overturn the law.

The Rev. Debora Hopkins, a transgender women and church pastor in Charlotte, said HB2 has made her "fearful."

Through the law, "You're forcing me to go into a bathroom that does not represent who I am," she said.

Joan McAllister, a Raleigh resident who has been participating in the NAACP's Moral Monday protests for three years, told a reporter she is not optimistic that legislators who voted for HB2 will change their minds.

"It's sad when I see how much damage has been done. I don't know how it'll ever be fixed. ... How do you get your reputation back?" she said.

At the Monday morning event, Jasmine Beach-Ferrara of the Asheville-based Campaign for Southern Equality said HB2 contributes to hostility against LGBT people.

"Laws that invalidate people’s existence, that make people live with fear, that spew lies about who people are contribute to a climate in which lives are at risk. We cannot let this stand," she said.

HB2 costs Asheville $1.5M conference