The North Carolina NAACP and the Forward Together Moral Movement announced a sit-in at the State Capitol planned for Monday.

The organizations held a press conference Friday condemning House Bill 2, as they held signs calling it “Hate Bill 2.”

House Bill 2 reversed a Charlotte ordinance that allowed people to use the bathroom based on their gender identity and extended protections to transgender individuals.

NAACP President Rev. William Barber said the bathroom provision of the bill was only a small part of the bill. It also prohibits local municipalities from making anti-discrimination policies and from establishing a local living wage.

“Do not be surprised that they would lie here and say that this is about bathrooms when really it is about manipulating the vote. It is bringing together homophobia, racism and classicism in a way that’s been used as long as we had to fight against racism,” said Barber.

Barber accused those who passed the bill as playing a political game.

“They got bad numbers in the polls, so what do they do?” said Barber, “they take this old playbook, this old poisonous brew, they shake it and mix it all up and put it in one bill.”

Last Sunday, Governor Pat McCrory appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and defended the bill as pushing back against government overreach and upholding our common expectations of privacy.

NAACP Attorney Al McSurely was confident that the legal battle challenging the bill would be successful.

“We are going to win this, we going to win it legally,” said McSurely. “The question is how much money do we spend, how many young people do we injure, how many suicides do we create, while they’re playing their games.”

Last week, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a ruling that prevented a Virginia transgender teenager from using the boy’s restroom at his school. That ruling could have an effect on House Bill 2, especially in regards to Title IX funding.

Barber noted that now, all eyes are on North Carolina.

“A movement is not national because it has a Washington DC address; it’s national because of its impact. Over and Over again I heard people saying North Carolina is the epicenter, and the fight that we are waging in the Forward Together Moral Monday Movement, is the center of the universe of fighting back,” said Barber.

On Monday, the groups plan to hold a mass sit-in in Raleigh as well as deliver a petition to Governor McCrory’s office.

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