Sarah Hagen

WCNC-TV, Charlotte, N.C.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Council members in the state's largest city passed an ordinance allowing transgender people to choose public bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity.

Gov. Pat McCrory, previously Charlotte's mayor, had called the idea a threat to public safety and warned that the state's legislature might step in.

“Being assigned male at birth — it can be dangerous if I walk into the men’s bathroom," Charlotte resident Lara Nazario said at the council meeting before a 7-4 vote. "I’m told I am in the wrong one or ‘outed’ as transgender. This often leads to violence."

Charlotte City Council voted to expand protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, making it the latest frontier in a national debate on how businesses treat gay, lesbian and transgender customers. One of the revisions to the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance now allows people to choose restrooms corresponding to the gender with which they identify.

“I’m pleased that Charlotte has sent a signal that we will treat people with dignity and respect, even when we disagree,” Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts, a Democrat, said moments after the vote.

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McCrory, a Republican, had said in an email Sunday that changing the policy on restrooms could “create major public safety issues.”

“Also, this action of allowing a person with male anatomy, for example, to use a female restroom or locker room will most likely cause immediate state legislative intervention, which I would support as governor,” he wrote in the email to two council members.

The Government Center had a full house with crowds spilling into overflow rooms. About 140 people spoke for one minute each.

“If this went for a public vote, it would be profoundly defeated," Charlotte resident Jeanette Wilson said of City Council. "And that makes you the bully. This ordinance is bad for Charlotte.”

The issue has been part of a national debate that included voters' high-profile defeat of a nondiscrimination ordinance late last year in Houston. Lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender advocates worried bathroom-access fears would be used elsewhere to fight equal-rights measures.

South Dakota legislators recently passed a bill requiring students to use bathrooms corresponding to their sex at birth though the governor hasn't signed it.

In North Carolina, the advocacy group Equality NC issued a statement criticizing McCrory for “perpetuating the same tired and debunked myths about transgender people and public safety.” Executive director Chris Sgro accused the governor and legislators of trying “to bully the Charlotte City Council with threats to strip municipalities of their rights to govern.”

Materials given to the council ahead of the meeting cited some residents’ concerns that sexual predators would use the ordinance to gain entry to women’s restrooms for assault or indecent exposure, but it also noted that staff researchers hadn’t uncovered any evidence of an increase in such crimes in cities with non-discrimination ordinances.

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Before the meeting, several hundred people stood outside in a wind-driven rain to protest the proposal, holding signs with messages such as: “No Men In Women’s Restrooms” and “Keep Kids Safe.”

“There are countless deviant men who will pretend to be transgender who will use this to gain access to those they want to exploit,” ordinance opponent Elaina Smith said.

Small-business owner Juli Ghazi said her restaurant, Pure Pizza, already had a similar bathroom policy in place, and it works.

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“There hasn’t been any gay or straight sex in the bathroom. No transgender person has exposed himself to children, a gay person hasn’t hit on a straight person and a gay person hasn’t harassed a straight person,” Ghazi said.

The measure adds sexual orientation, gender identity and marital status as attributes protected from discrimination when it comes to public accommodations including restaurants, retail stores and other businesses. It would take effect in April. Public school would not be affected by the law.

Charlotte City Council defeated a similar measure in March even after the removal of the provision that would have allowed bathroom use based on gender identity. Local officials later announced that transgender people could use the bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity in city- and county-owned facilities.

Opponents of the measure — including some clergy and business owners — sent City Council a letter saying businesses should have the right to refuse service based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow Sarah Hagen on Twitter: @SarahHagenTV

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