Governor Pat McCrory is still pushing for changes to one portion of House Bill 2.

As the Charlotte City Council and the North Carolina General Assembly dig in on their respective sides of the HB2 debate, the ramifications of the controversial law have now drawn national impact.

Eleven states, mostly throughout the south plus Wisconsin and Maine, filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration this week after the United States Department of Justice issued guidelines earlier this month saying school districts across the country must allow transgender individuals to use the bathroom of their gender identity rather than their birth certificate.

The bathroom debate, particular to public schools, was already in federal court before HB2 was passed, but the debate intensified once the bill was passed into law in a whirlwind special session of the General Assembly.

“Again, I’ve always said this is a national issue. It wasn’t just a North Carolina issue, and it was just a matter of time before the overreach started impacting other states,” McCrory told reporters on Thursday.

McCrory was speaking after a grand opening ceremony for the Morinaga America Foods manufacturing plant in Orange County.

North Carolina is not part of the lawsuit filed by the nearly dozen states this week. North Carolina has its own legal battles looming. The state and the United States DOJ have filed dueling lawsuits after the department said North Carolina violated federal civil rights law with HB2.

McCrory continued to say the litigation was about protecting the privacy of North Carolinians.

“In this very important privacy issue that’s going to be resolved by the courts,” McCrory said, “and sooner or later it’s got to be resolved by Congress also regarding the 1964 Civil Rights Act.”

McCory added that the enforcement mechanism regarding House Bill 2 reverts to trespassing laws, because there is no enforcement action called for in HB2.

While most of the attention has been paid to the bathroom provision of House Bill 2, McCrory said he is still hoping another piece of the legislation will be changed – the portion that takes away the right to sue for discrimination in state court.

“I definitely want to see that changed,” McCrory said. “That was the one part of the bill that was wrong, and I anticipate that to be changed still. And I’m pushing for that change, and I expect it to happen.

“And it needs to happen.”

Despite McCrory’s continued requests and executive order asking for the change, the General Assembly has not made any attempt to alter HB2 in any way during the legislative short session.

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