LGBTQ HB2+5

Five years after the furor of House Bill 2, the LGBTQ community—in Charlotte, in North Carolina, and across much of the nation—fights attacks on new fronts

- GREG LACOUR

THE LGBTQ ADVOCACY ORGANIZATION Charlotte Pride held a news conference in late April in response to the murders of Jaida Peterson and Remy Fennell, two Black transgender women in Charlotte, in separate incidents earlier in the month. The group announced a new relief fund to pay for emergency housing, food, and other needs for Black transgender women, who speakers said are especially vulnerable. “Charlotte has been violent toward trans people for years,” said Nada Merghani, Charlotte Pride’s programs manager. “Our sisters are dying.”

The murders were the organization’s focus, but no one could miss the context. Charlotte was the epicenter of the fight over LGBTQ rights in North Carolina five years ago, when the legislature passed notorious House Bill 2. In the first months of 2021, N.C. lawmakers—and their counterparts in 31 other states—have introduced bills that target transgender people for discrimination on other fronts.

In 2016, North Carolina joined a slew of states that adopted “bathroom bills” that required transgender people to use public restrooms that matched their genders at birth. This year, the anti-trans bills mainly target two areas: health care and women’s sports. As of this writing, lawmakers in 22 states have introduced bills that would either prohibit certain kinds of health care services, like those related to gender reassignment or allow health care providers to refuse services based on “conscience.” Legislators in 32 states have introduced bills that would prohibit transgender girls or women from participation in girls’ or women’s sports because, they claim, transgender girls and women are naturally boys and men with inherent physical advantages.