HB2 Still A Commonsense Law, Despite Continued Misinformation, Part 2

There is just a lot of uncertainty about where things might go in this upcoming session is family policy with NC family Pres. John Rustin. Welcome to family policy matters.

This week we will continue with part two of our conversation with Jerry Royle about house go to. We hope you enjoy will anything else Jerry that house bill two does really hurt so much of the health and yeah, there was one other provision that was in the original wall that actually has been removed and that related to lawsuits that were brought for wrongful discharge from employment and what had initially been part of the law was a provision that said that those causes of action could only be brought under federal law that could be brought in state or federal court under federal law, but it was it would have eliminated the state law cause of action they the legislature later in 2016 reversed for appeal that section of the law and part of the. The rationale when they when they put that provision in there when they discussed it in the original debate was that there actually more remedies under federal law, but people pointed out that they still thought it was important that the state cause of action state law cause of action still be part of the remedies that were available, and so the legislature chose to put that provision back into the law, but the rest of house bill two has stayed in place.

According to much of what we've heard and especially seen and heard and read in the media.

North Carolina must've gone very far afield health when they passed House Bill to talk about that for just a minute was the adoption of house bill to some far out action taken by the Gen. assembly, or was it actually in line with what we see in other states, very much actually in line with what we see across the country is in fact North Carolina is one of 28 states that basically have the same laws as it relates to nondiscrimination laws is, again, as mentioned earlier, areas like race, color, religion, national origin and sex and with understanding that that is biological sex. All 20 those 28 states as well as the federal government in their statutes do not include sexual orientation and gender identity is protected classes.

So North Carolina is a very much in line with more than a majority of the states as well as with our federal statutes. One of the claimants been made to jury by opponents of house bill two is the portrayal of the notion that this bill has had disastrous effects on North Carolina's economy. Are these claims justified not at all.

And we actually as recently as November, there were two and that was a course months after House Bill two he was passed really more than six months afterwards. Did you see national ratings putting North Carolina right up at the top is as far as it relates to doing business. A place to do business in place to live in our country forms and magazine and site selection magazine. Both rated North Carolina is number two in the nation for places to do business are the best business climate as far as best places to live. There is again the end of the year there were national ratings that put a number of our cities of five of our cities in the top 103 in the top 15 in the United States and our economy continues to be one of the fastest growing in our country. The number of people employed has increased dramatically. The unemployment has decreased all these indicators show that North Carolina economically and just as far as a place for people to live is right up at the very top.

Well, that's great information here and we seen that repeatedly in recent years that North Carolina just has a booming economy and is as some politicians like to say we are definitely open for business and we are but all of these reports show that North Carolina is doing great that these national organizations and media outlets and others who look at these ratings and the criteria they go into these ratings on an ongoing basis. Continue to cite North Carolina as one of the top states in the nation for business though that really debunks a lot of these false claims that are being made about the impact of so-called impacted house bill two has had on our state.

Now Jerry, we are just about out of town for this week.

But before we depart I want to give you an opportunity just to let our listeners know what what you see is the future of house bill two in the current session of the Gen. assembly, it still remains very much a hot topic what you anticipate is going to happen with house bill to the session which hard to know what is going to happen this year there was an effort at the end of last year with some of the leadership in the legislature tried to see if if there was a way to actually repeal house bill to but there were number factors that kept that effort from moving ahead in one of those was the fact that when part of the agreement was gonna be that Charlotte would totally repeal the provisions that they had passed in February and then that the legislature would come back in and repeal house bill to what Charlotte did on a Monday in December was to only repeal part of the air ordinance that is been passed in February, in the actually added a provision saying that once the legislature repealed house bill to that. They then said they would have the authority to come back and pass similar provisions so that naturally created a lot of unrest among the legislators of the Charlotte city Council did come back a few days later and repealed what they had written on that Monday. This was on Wednesday they came back and said weird and repeal what we we passed on Monday and repeal they did with one sentence which was very clear repealed with a past in February, but at that point.

People already were very wary of what might happen because Charlotte actually put in writing that they may, they saw themselves as really having the authority to come back and do what had caused all this controversy a year ago so there is just a lot of uncertainty about where things might go in this upcoming session well and I was one of the things that we had explained the legislators in this process that there was some discussion about it and some folks use the term reset to go back to a reset to where the Charlotte city Council would repeal their ordinances and then legislature would come back in and repeal house bill two and it would put us back to square one. But we communicated to lawmakers that it was impossible to come back to square one.

Because of all that it happened with house bill to and also the reality is you said that the city of Charlotte even kind of showed their hand as to what their intentions were that if the Gen. assembly, and when the Gen. assembly repealed house bill to enfold. Did they would simply come back behind that and reenact the ordinances that that they had put in place last February and then we also solved.

We saw Durham say that they were poised to enact a very similar ordinance changes to what Charlotte did and we certainly suspect that there were other cities and/or counties around the state.

That would look at doing the same thing and so it was very clear that if the Gen. assembly repealed house bill to that there was nothing to keep cities and counties from adopting the Charlotte like ordinances and doing exactly what the city of Charlotte had done so, what was the general assembly going to do after that when they come back and pass another house bill to probably not because of all the controversy that surrounded it. So there really was no way to go back to a so-called reset before all of this activity transpired in the winter of last year and so we just continue to encourage our lawmakers to stand firm on house bill to when the governor called the special session near the end of December. The week before Christmas to look at this repealed both the House and Senate Republican caucuses clearly did not have the votes within their caucus to favor a repeal of house bill two, and so they adjourned that special session, taking no action on house bill to which we were grateful for, but I think it still shows the commitment that a lot of legislators in the Gen. assembly have toward standing firm on house bill to your listening to policy matters so I spent to listen to our radio show online and family resources that will be a place of persuasion in your community website electing Jerry what can citizens who are interested in house bill to who feel that it's an important measure to keep in place the things that you talked about the bathroom. Privacy and safety measures. The other measures that are consistent with the Dillons rule doctrine that cities and counties only derive the authority that they have from the general assembly and from the Constitution and that it's really our state lawmakers who have the proper role of making decisions about these antidiscrimination laws in North Carolina and that it's proper for them to rein in city and county governments if they go to for what can citizens do if they are interested in and continue to be concerned about the legislature considering bills that would repeal house bill to will on our website@ncfamily.org you can see a lot of the history of house bill two in the search box they are on our website. If you just put in HB two it'll pull up all the publications that we have produced relating to house bill to as far as actually getting involved in responding.

We also on our website. If you click on get involved and then it has take action with you. You can click on they are in will take you to a section where there's information about house bill to and specifically how you can contact your members of the North Carolina House and Senate through email and also as we mentioned previously it in addition to emails.

It's great to be in touch with them on even more personal level through phone calls or even a personal visit or jury also like to mention that we do have a special edition of our flagship publication family North Carolina magazine that is dedicated to straightening out a lot of these miss perceptions about house bill two. It's a great resource.

It kind of approaches the house bill to issue from a variety of different perspectives and the feedback that we continue to get on that publication in particular is very very strong people find it to be very very helpful to understand all of the dynamics that are at play on this very important issue. So I do want to encourage our listeners if they don't have a copy of that addition of family North Carolina magazine to go to our website and go to the magazine page and you can download a copy of the entire magazine addition, there or you can read those individual articles online and that can be found@ncfamily.org. I would just encourage our listeners.

If this is an issue that is of interest and concern to you that you do take action. Even if you contacted your legislators before.

Now is the time to do it again as they come back into session and as they are revisiting this issue in hearing about it. Discussed within the halls of the Gen. assembly, and especially the new members of the legislature who have not had the privilege of dealing with this issue over the last year.

I think it's important for them to understand where citizens within their districts are coming from as it relates to this issue and others so as we always do. We want to encourage citizens to be active and engaged to reach out to your lawmakers and know that it really does make a difference when you do that I it's important for them for these state lawmakers to hear from folks back home and they really do consider what folks back home. Had to say it is. It's always important that as we have seen because this issue has gone on for so long. This is an very important part of the life of our state think that we all need to communicate with each other about what we think is best for our citizens well and Jerry and Matt like to, I think it's important to recognize the role that North Carolina has nationally in this we have really been the focal point of a lot of the discussion and debate around privacy and safety legislation like house bill to you as well as the other provisions that are contained in the bill and a lot of states continue to look to North Carolina as a leader and an example in this area and it is so important for our legislators to stand firm to continue to defend this law because it does set a standard for other states across the nation. Unfortunately with the new year upon us and legislatures going into session across the country. We have seen a number of state legislatures in a number of other states take up legislation like this so they they understand how critically important it is to protect the privacy and safety of women and children in public facilities like bathroom showers, locker rooms and changing facilities and have sought to pursue legislation similar to house bill to and without jury rural I want to thank you so much for your continued great work on behalf of families and family values in the North Carolina Gen. assembly and otherwise through your work here at the North Carolina family policy Council and just want to encourage our listeners to reach out and contact your lawmakers about this and other important matters as the Gen. assembly gets cranked up for the 2017 legislative session.

You welcome John and again it's a blessing to work together with you other citizens across the state and family policy matters production to listen to our radio show online resources and information about issues important to families in North Carolina go to my website@family.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook