North Carolina's 'Bathroom Bill' Legacy Lives On

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Nearly a decade after North Carolina lawmakers rushed through House Bill 2 (HB2), also known as the 'Bathroom Bill', the political strategy behind it has endured. What began as a state-level fight over a Charlotte nondiscrimination ordinance has evolved into a broader effort to target transgender people through legislation across the country. While HB2 was partially repealed, its influence has reemerged in new bills and renewed efforts to regulate where transgender people can exist safely and openly.

Why it matters

The modern, coordinated Republican legislative movement targeting transgender rights is widely considered to have begun with North Carolina's HB2 in 2016. The law demonstrated that attacking transgender people's access to bathrooms could be politically mobilizing, even if the economic fallout was severe. This strategy has since been replicated in other states, expanding beyond bathrooms to sports, healthcare, and legal identity documents.

The details

In 2016, North Carolina's Republican-led legislature rushed through HB2 in a single day, overturning a Charlotte nondiscrimination ordinance that allowed transgender people to use bathrooms matching their gender identity. The law stripped cities and counties of the authority to enact their own nondiscrimination protections, mandated bathroom access based on birth certificate sex, and curtailed legal recourse for discrimination. While framed as a matter of privacy and safety, the timing of HB2 suggested it was a wedge issue designed to mobilize conservative voters in an election year.

• In early 2016, Charlotte City Council passed a nondiscrimination ordinance extending protections to LGBTQ+ residents, including allowing transgender people to use restrooms that align with their gender identity.
• Within hours of the Charlotte ordinance being set to take effect on April 1, 2016, Republican legislative leaders called a special session and passed HB2 into law.
• In November 2016, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, a Republican who had signed HB2 into law, narrowly lost his reelection bid to Democrat Roy Cooper.
• In 2017, under mounting pressure, lawmakers partially repealed HB2, replacing it with House Bill 142, which preserved state control over local nondiscrimination laws.
• In 2023, North Carolina lawmakers introduced restrictions on drag performances, and in 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a sweeping bathroom bill applying to schools, prisons, and government buildings.

What they’re saying

What’s next

The judge in the case will decide on Tuesday whether or not to allow the proposed Women's Safety and Protection Act, which would define 'biological sex' in state law and restrict access to restrooms, locker rooms, and sleeping quarters for transgender people.