In just one day, North Carolina’s legislature used an emergency session to pass a bill that, among other things, prevents cities and counties from passing anti-discrimination ordinances that protect lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people. Critics of the legislation — House Bill 2, which Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed into law on March 23 — denounced the law almost immediately.
Those critics include many in higher education. “In a span of 12 hours, they turned North Carolina into the most anti-gay state in America,” said Shannon Gilreath, a professor of law and women’s and gender studies at Wake Forest University.
On Monday, a college student, a professor, and a staff member — joining a coalition of advocacy groups — sued the state in federal court, claiming the law violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by denying equal rights to anyone who is gay, transgender, or bisexual. Meanwhile, Roy Cooper, the state’s attorney general (who is running against Governor McCrory in the election this fall) has said he will not defend House Bill 2, calling it a “national embarrassment.”
As the legality of House Bill 2 is challenged, the state’s colleges and universities are left to adapt. How, exactly, will it affect them?
Transgender Bathrooms
One of the bill’s most controversial provisions is its mandate that public institutions require people to use only the restroom that corresponds to their gender at birth, as opposed to the gender they identify with. The effect on North Carolina colleges will vary depending on whether they are public or private.
Private universities don’t have to enforce the law, and many in the state have been vocal about that distinction. Duke and Wake Forest Universities, and Davidson College, were quick to release statements saying they were not bound by the law, while underlining how their current policies include the protection of sexual orientation against bias.
Public institutions, however, including universities in the University of North Carolina system, can’t set policies that are at odds with House Bill 2, and are reviewing the law to see how best to carry it out. Public schools in the state are working with the UNC system.
Even commenting on the law puts public colleges in a precarious situation, said Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride, an advocacy group for students. “They would risk losing, potentially, funding and support politically for other initiatives that their campuses want,” Mr. Windmeyer said.
Public universities that want to accommodate transgender students do have the option of providing single-occupancy, unisex bathrooms. That option now becomes “imperative” for transgender people at public colleges, Mr. Gilreath said. Chapel Hill has “79 or 80 of these unisex facilities. It isn’t as though they can’t provide transgender people with some options,” he said. But “those options are just dramatically limited now because of House Bill 2.”
For Adam Plant, a trans man enrolled at Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity, the passage of House Bill 2 is a deflating example of his government trying to discriminate against him.
“It becomes exhausting to have to defend yourself on a daily basis, to have to defend your identity, how you’re living your life,” Mr. Plant said. “The fact that actual legislation is made and people are trying to put on the books that allow this discrimination is extremely discouraging.”
Mr. Plant said he is concerned that the law will continue to propagate the idea that transgender people are regarded as unequal by that state, which may put them in danger. These worries aren’t unfounded, Mr. Windmeyer said. “About 25 percent of LGB young people experience harassment on a daily basis on college campuses,” said Mr. Windmeyer. “About 40 percent of trans people face discrimination. This is just going to create more fear for LGBTQ young people.”
Harm to Recruitment
Another prevailing concern over the law is potential harm to the recruitment of students and faculty members. As Evelyne Huber, chair of Chapel Hill’s political-science department put it, “who wants to come to a state that legislates discrimination?”
“I can certainly see it having an effect on students not wanting to come here, and faculty and staff, for that matter,” said Adam Versényi, chairman of Chapel Hill’s department of dramatic art. “It’s going to make recruiting the best faculty and staff more difficult. I fear it may lead people to not even apply.”
Campus Pride has been hosting college fairs where gay, bisexual, and transgender prospective students can meet college representatives. Those fairs have drawn the participation of over 320 universities, Mr. Windmeyer said, adding that House Bill 2 will certainly weigh on students’ minds when considering where to attend.
“Young people want to go to welcoming state schools, and this is going to impact how these schools are viewed,” Mr. Windmeyer said. “They don’t want to go to North Carolina … these states that pass these laws have a significant amount of reputation that follows them.”
Ms. Huber was one of more than 50 senior faculty and staff members at UNC-Chapel Hill who, in a Facebook post, voiced their opposition to the law and the effects it could have on recruitment.
“It is a hurdle that we will have to overcome,” she said. “It makes a tough competition even more difficult for us.”
Title IX Funding
Critics of House Bill 2 have also said it violates Title IX, the federal gender-equity law that guarantees no student be subjected to discrimination based on sex by any education program receiving federal aid.
“North Carolina receives roughly $4.5 billion in federal financial-aid money that this law puts in jeopardy because of the conflict this law represents with Title IX,” Mr. Windmeyer said.
Governor McCory said in a statement that would, he said, separate “myths” about the bill from “facts,” that the state’s Title IX money — much of which goes to primary and secondary schools, not colleges — was not at risk. He alluded to “a federal court which has looked at a similar issue.”
PolitiFact North Carolina, which rates the veracity of politicians’ statements, gave Mr. McCrory’s Title IX facts a “half true” rating, pointing out that the case he referenced is pending on appeal.
Colleges’ legal responsibilities to transgender students is the issue at stake in several pending court cases. On Tuesday, a University of Pittsburgh student settled a lawsuit — which he’d lost at the U.S. District Court level, and then appealed — claiming the university had violated Title IX by expelling him for repeatedly using the men’s locker room at the university.
The settlement was for an undisclosed amount, but the university has changed its policies and now allows transgender students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.
