North Carolina Enacts Historic Legislation Striking Down LGBT Non-Discrimination Ordinance

Wash. Post: North Carolina Passes Legislation Overturning LGBT Protections. On March 23, The Washington Post reported that North Carolina “passed a sweeping law overturning gay and transgender protections,” which will now force transgender people to use restrooms “that correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificates.” According to the Post, the bill was introduced “as part of a hastily called special session”:  

North Carolina on Wednesday passed a sweeping law overturning gay and transgender protections at the local level and requiring students to use restrooms that correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificates.

The measure was introduced Wednesday morning as part of a hastily called special session, passed both chambers later in the day and was signed by Gov. Pat McCrory (R) that evening. In a statement, McCrory said legislative action was necessary to prevent local governments from enacting nondiscrimination ordinances that overstep their authority in a way that might allow “a man to use a woman's bathroom, shower or locker room.”

But gay-rights groups called the legislation blatantly discriminatory and condemned it as the most extreme bill of its kind in the nation. With this measure, North Carolina becomes the first state to ban students from using restrooms that match with their gender identity if it clashes with their birth certificate.

“Legislators have gone out of their way to stigmatize and marginalize transgender North Carolinians by pushing ugly and fundamentally untrue stereotypes that are based on fear and ignorance and not supported by the experiences of more than 200 cities with these protections,” Sarah Preston, acting executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, said in a statement.

State lawmakers pushed the measure in response to a nondiscrimination ordinance adopted in the city of Charlotte last month. It expanded civil-rights protections for individuals on the basis of marital status, sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. But critics homed in on one aspect: that transgender people would be allowed to use their preferred restroom. [The Washington Post, 3/23/16]

North Carolina's Law Is Unprecedented In Both Anti-LGBT Scope And Passage Procedure. The passage of House Bill 2 (HB 2) on March 23 makes North Carolina the first state in the country to enact a law banning transgender people, including public school students, from using restrooms that align with their gender identity. Legislators passed the law in a special session -- one of only 10 that the North Carolina General Assembly has held in the past 18 years. According to North Carolina NPR station WUNC, it was also the first time the legislative body -- rather than the governor -- has called a special session in the past 35 years. [The Human Rights Campaign, 3/23/16; WUNC, 3/23/16; Forbes, 2/24/16]   

STUDY: Sweeping Anti-LGBT Law Received Scant News Coverage

Spanish-language TV News Shows Virtually Ignored North Carolina's New Anti-LGBT Bill. Media Matters analyzed news coverage from March 22 to 24 and found that the largest Spanish-language networks, Univisión and Telemundo, failed to mention the bill during their flagship news shows, Noticiero Univisión and Noticiero Telemundo. Noticiero Univisión Edición Nocturna, Univisión's late-night news update, failed to cover the legislation as well.

Cable News Networks Sparingly Covered The Unprecedented Legislation. Cable news networks covered the law only briefly, with MSNBC devoting 2 minutes to the legislation over the course of two separate mentions. CNN and Fox News mentioned the law only once during the time frame analyzed, with 25 and 22 seconds of coverage, respectively. 

Methodology:

Media Matters used iQ media to search Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC between March 22 and 24 for the terms “North Carolina,” “gay,” “transgender,” “gender,” bathroom," “ordinance,” Charlotte," “discrimination,” “nondiscrimination,” and “antidiscrimination.”

The same search was run, using iQ media, in Spanish for Univision's Noticiero Univisión and Noticiero Univisión Edición Nocturna and Telemundo's Noticiero Telemundo.

Reruns, teases for upcoming segments, and passing mentions unprompted by anchors were excluded. With the exception of Univision's Noticiero Univisión Edición Nocturna, mentions after 11 p.m. but before the beginning of the next day's news cycle were excluded.

Coverage that counted toward the totals included discussions where the North Carolina law was the stated topic of discussion, and time spent in substantial discussion of the law during a segment.