House Bill 2 covers a wide range of topics from the minimum wage to gender identity and the power of local government.

Students, faculty and staff at UNC tackled all of these issues during a panel held on campus Wednesday night.

“The bill does not require the university to change in any way its current anti-discrimination policies,” said interim vice chancellor David Parker. “It doesn’t prohibit us from receiving or acting on complaints or violations that are broader or in topics other than what is discussed in the statute.”

The portion of the bill discussing discrimination and minimum wage are directed at local municipalities and political subdivisions of the state. Parker said the university is neither.

However, he said the section of the bill that requires public spaces to designate a restroom for specific genders applies to UNC.

It also requires people to use the restroom of the gender on their birth certificate.

“We are not going to check birth certificates,” he said. “We are not going to do visual inspections. We are not going to require people to otherwise establish what their biological sex is based on their birth certificate.”

Parker said the university knows of 174 single occupancy or family restrooms on campus and is currently looking at whether or not they have to change the signage on any of them.

Law professor Maxine Eichner said the bill could be struck down in court based on the fact that it conflicts with federal law.

“Whether or not a court agrees to strike it down, it is certainly unconstitutional based on its intent,” she said.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1996 that a legislature could not pass a law based on anti-LGBT principles, which Eichner said was the case for House Bill 2.

“In the meantime, I am afraid,” said teaching fellow Nora Augustine. “I’m afraid every day since the legislation passed for my friends and my family who lost not only legal protections, but lost a psychological sense of safety.”

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