Chanting protesters gathered outside the heavily patrolled Executive Mansion of North Carolina to protest Gov. Pat McCrory’s approval of House Bill 2, which prohibits anti-discrimination policies that account for gender identity, expression and sexual orientation.
Eva Panjwani, a student at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Qasima Wideman, a sophomore studying Africana studies, read a statement featuring a list of objections several signatories had concerning the passage of the bill.
“This bill rolls back decades of hard-won progress and will harm our whole state. It undermines municipal democratic control, advancements in anti-discrimination policy, and further prohibits wage increases,” Wideman read as the crowd echoed the words.
Among those in the crowd were five people who chained themselves together in protest of the bill. They were eventually arrested after refusing police orders to move out of the street.
“It’s [the bill] not just about peeing,” said Loan Tran, one of the protesters chained in the center of the street.
“We are fighting for freedom of movement,” Tran said. “We want to live. We have to live.”
Protesters were encouraged to wear all black to represent the lives of trans people of color, a main concern of protesters as the limited anti-discrimination policies put in place to protect them have now been eliminated.
However, in a statement, McCrory said that he is keeping the families of North Carolina safe with the passage of the bill.
“I feel very strongly that we — as governor, I — need to protect the basic expectations of privacy that all individuals should be allowed to have, especially in the sanctity of a restroom,” McCrory stated.
Protesters were enraged that McCrory used trans women and trans panic as a scapegoat to avoid conversations about consent.
“The bill uses trans panic and the scapegoating of trans women to derail real conversations about safety and consent,” Panjwani and Wideman read from the statement. “Trans and queer people are survivors of sexual assault, too. Our safety matters, and we don’t make our community safer by threatening others with the brute force of the murderous police or incarceration.”
The protesters were unified in their chants of “gender comes in more than two, we are more than pink and blue,” “tell the NCGA don’t discriminate” and “trans lives matter” could be heard from several blocks down the street.
“We’re here because our local state government doesn’t acknowledge every human’s basic rights … and the fact that we should be able to use bathrooms depending on what gender you decide you are,” said Alex Caouette, a protester.
The statement voiced concern over the amount of time given to the legislation to read the bill and vote on it, as well as the absence of any voices of trans people of color during the session.
“Lawmakers were given only five minutes to review the bill, and it passed within a 12-hour period without a single trans person of color being allowed to speak,” read Panjwani and Wideman.
The organizers, #BlackLivesMatter Queer and Trans People of Color Coalition, along with about 20 other groups, called the three-hour long protest a “special session of the people outside of the Governor’s Mansion.”
“It is our duty to demand freedom, to demand a living wage, to demand education, to demand comprehensive healthcare that is accessible and free of charge,” they read.
Many companies are also rallying against the bill and many have released statements opposing it including the NBA, Bank of America, Lowe’s and PayPal.
The NBA Twitter stated it is “concerned that this discriminatory law runs counter to our guiding principles of equality and mutual respect and do not know what impact it will have on our ability to successfully host the 2017 All-Star game in Charlotte.”
Other companies argue that diversity makes their companies’ environments richer.
The North Carolina-based company, Lowe’s, released a statement regarding the bill Thursday. “Lowe’s recognizes and values the rich diversity of our employees, the customers we serve and the communities where we do business each day. We welcome all people to our stores. Lowe’s opposes any measure in any state that would encourage or allow discrimination.”
Chancellor Randy Woodson also issued a statement addressing concerns about the bill and its impact on the university.
“I want to reiterate our deep commitment to welcoming and supporting all people at NC State, regardless of age, color, disability, gender identity, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or veteran status,” Woodson wrote.
He went on to say that the diversity of NC State is one of its greatest strengths.
“NC State is a diverse place,” Woodson said. “We all come from different backgrounds. We all have and share different ideas. And we all do that in respectful, supportive ways … We will continue, as a community, working hard to ensure that this is a place where all students, faculty and staff feel safe, are supported and can be successful.”
A protestor holds a sign during a protest of House Bill 2 in front of the governor's mansion in downtown Raleigh.
