The U.S. Justice Department on
Wednesday told North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory that a state law
that targets the LGBT community violates the U.S. Civil Rights Act
and Title IX.
North Carolina's House Bill 2 blocks
cities from enacting LGBT protections and limits the bathroom choices
of transgender people in government buildings, including schools.
The department asked state officials to
confirm by Monday that they “will not comply with or implement HB2.”
“Access to sex-segregated restrooms
and other workplace facilities consistent with gender identity is a
term, condition or privilege of employment,” the letter to McCrory
states. “Denying such access to transgender individuals, whose
gender identity is different from their gender assigned at birth,
while affording it to similarly situated non-transgender employees,
violates Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act].”
North Carolina stands to lose billions
in federal education funding if the finding is upheld.
McCrory called the action “something
we've never seen regarding Washington overreach in my lifetime” and
said that the issue now impacts every state.
Republican lawmakers who have defended
the law, including House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil
Berger, also criticized the federal government.
“I guess President Obama, in his
final months in office, has decided to take up this ultra-liberal
agenda,” Moore
told reporters.