North Carolina LGBTQ Elected Officials Discuss HB2 Vs. House Bill 142

When UNC’s LGBTQ Representation and Rights Research Initiative first invited a panel of LGBT elected officials to speak on campus, House Bill 2 was still fully enacted.

But, by the time the April 7 event – which was held at UNC’s FedEx Global Center – rolled around, the situation surrounding House Bill 2 had become a lot more nuanced. HB2 was repealed and replaced by House Bill 142, which dictated that no local non-discrimination ordinances regarding public accommodations could be passed until 2020.

“I voted against the repeal bill,” said House Representative Deborah Butler, who was appointed to her seat in February 2017. “However, this is almost certainly better than what we had before.”

She said that, although House Bill 142 was certainly not an ideal situation, it was better than some of the alternatives at the General Assembly.

“If you had seen some of the drafts of the bill floating around the assembly,” Butler cautioned the crowd.

Lydia Lavelle, who has been mayor of Carrboro since 2013, agreed that House Bill 142 is better than what the state had before.

“So many people had a fear of simply going to the bathroom,” Lavelle said. “To have that horrific part of the bill gone, for me, was worth it.”

But other members of the panel disagreed.

“I agree that it is a step, but I disagree that it’s a step in the right direction,” said Charlotte City Council member LaWana Mayfield.

She went on to say that, if there is any discriminatory language in the bill, it is not an acceptable replacement.

“I asked on Twitter, ‘What level of discrimination are you comfortable with?’ Because it’s always about those who are ‘other.’”

Former Chapel Hill mayor Mark Kleinschmidt agreed, saying that he saw House Bill 142 as a poor reflection on Governor Roy Cooper.

“The governor was a great disappointment. We eagerly and spiritedly worked hard for him,” Kleinschmidt said of LGBT individuals and organizations supporting Cooper during the narrow victory over incumbent Republican Pat McCrory in 2016.

While the panelists did have a hard time agreeing on whether the partial repeal of House Bill 2 was progress, they did agree on one thing – the need for more LGBTQ representatives.

“We need to have folks in every city in elected office,” said former Carrboro mayor and the first openly LGBTQ mayor in North Carolina Mike Nelson. “Because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, a Buncombe county commissioner since 2016, and forum moderator Steven Petrow of the Washington Post, wanted to make sure that people in the audience would consider running.

“There’s data that shows women need to be told 18 times they should run for office before they say, ‘I’m ready to do it,’” Beach-Ferrara told the crowd. “[I] don’t know if we have data about LGBTQ candidates.”

“You want to say it a few times then,” Petrow asked.

“Yes,” Beach-Ferrara responded, “you should run for office; you should run for office; you should be a campaign manager; you should be a field director or volunteer coordinator.”

To learn more about the LGBTQ Representation and Rights Research Initiative – which is the only one of its kind in the country – you can visit the organization’s website.

North Carolina LGBTQ Elected Officials Discuss HB2 Vs. House Bill 142

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