Transgender Law Center and Southerners on New Ground statement on North Carolina Governor's executive order

TLC@SONG staff and transgender community members impacted by HB2 available for interviews

April 12, 2016 - Today, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory issued an executive order related to House Bill 2, the state law that has garnered widespread outrage for targeting LGBT people and workers for discrimination. The executive order reaffirms nearly all the provisions of HB2, including the exclusion of transgender people from restrooms that match their gender identity, and adopts nondiscrimination protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity for state employees only. 

"In the wake of overwhelming business and community backlash, Governor Pat McCrory has decided to apply a public relations bandaid, rather than stepping up and directly addressing the enormous harm that he has done by signing HB2 into law," said Kris Hayashi, executive director of Transgender Law Center. "This executive order fails to address the core issue of discrimination that is at the heart of HB2, and under it transgender North Carolinians will still be targeted for harassment and discrimination. This executive order allows HB2 to stand as the first law in the country explicitly targeting transgender children and communities, which is unacceptable, as shown by the outpouring of opposition from North Carolina cities, leaders, and communities, as well as individuals, organizations, and businesses across the country. Today, Governor Pat McCrory has simply shown he knows that HB2 is a bad law – making it even more egregious that he still refuses to work with the legislature to overturn the entire law."

Paulina Helm-Hernandez, Co-Director of Southerners On New Ground, added: "We are disappointed that once again Governor McCrory has deemed his employees and other state employees as more deserving of legal protections than the rest of us. We remain committed to expanding protections for all LGBTQ people and will not relegate parts of our community as illegitimate and undeserving of basic access, rights, and nondiscrimination protections whether we are transgender, Black, undocumented immigrants, or formerly incarcerated peoples. We won't stand idly by as politicians use our identities, our bodies, and our experiences to create wedges with our neighbors in the name of business interests and we will continue to fight for the repeal of HB2 in its entirety." 

Transgender Law Center and Southerners on New Ground have been responding to the enactment of HB2 with rallies, legal strategies, and other efforts through their joint program, TLC@SONG.

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Transgender Law Center changes law, policy, and attitudes so that all people can live safely, authentically, and free from discrimination regardless of their gender identity or expression.

TLC@SONG is a newly formed national collaboration based in Atlanta, GA. The collaboration joins the Transgender Law Center's long history of legal, policy and trans-specific expertise with Southerners on New Ground's well-respected southern base-building and organizing shop. TLC@SONG focuses on policy advocacy, legal work, public education and movement building.

Southerners On New Ground (SONG) is a regional Queer Liberation organization made up of people of color, immigrants, undocumented people, people with disabilities, working class and rural and small town, LGBTQ people in the South.  SONG builds a beloved community of LGBTQ people in the South who are ready and willing to do our part to challenge oppression in order to bring about liberation for ALL people. We develop leadership, build our membership base, and identify and carry out community organizing projects and campaigns. All of our work strives to bring together marginalized communities to work towards justice and liberation for all people.