Loretta Lynch over anti-LGBTI law

Finally!!!

Thanks to GayStar newws.

The US Department of Justice is suing North Carolina and its governor, Pat McCrory, for enacting the anti-LGBTI House Bill 2.
lorettalynch1The state had been given a deadline of Monday (9 May) to abandon implementation of the controversial law which removes local legal protections for LGBTI people and prohibits transgender people from using public facilities that correspond to their gender identity.

Instead of backing away from the law, McCrory filed a suit against the US government earlier in the day accusing it of bypassing Congress and attempting to rewrite laws.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch called HB2 ‘state-sponsored discrimination’ and had a message for transgender people in the Tar Heel state.

‘We see you. We stand with you … And please know that history is on your side,’ she said at a press conference announcing the legal action.

The federal lawsuit claims the law is in violation of Title VII of the US Civil Rights Act, Title IX, and the Violence Against Women Act and seeks a statewide bar on it being enforced.

‘We retain the option of curtailing federal funding to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina as this case proceeds,’ Lynch also said.

North Carolina and anti-LGBTI lawThen she added: ‘This action is about a great deal more than bathrooms. This is about the dignity and the respect that we accord our fellow citizens and the laws that we as a people and as a country have enacted to protect them. Indeed, to protect all of us.’

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of North Carolina, and Lambda Legal – who are challenging House Bill 2 in federal court on behalf of six LGBT North Carolinians and members of the ACLU of North Carolina – applaud the Justice Department for filing suit.

‘This law is a targeted and unprecedented attack on the LGBT community, particularly against transgender people,’ they said in a joint statement