Gov. Cooper: ‘No time to waste’ in repealing HB2

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said Monday “there is no time to waste” to repeal House Bill 2 after a North Carolina sports official warned lawmakers that the state “is on the brink” of losing NCAA events for six years.

Writing on behalf of the N.C. Sports Association, Scott Dupree, executive director of the Raleigh Sports Alliance, told lawmakers that NCAA committees are deciding this month where to hold events through 2022, including basketball tournament games in Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro.

“The NCAA news means there is no time to waste in repealing House Bill 2,” Cooper responded in a statement. “The bipartisan votes of both Democrats and Republicans are there for repeal if the Republican legislative leadership will just put it to a vote.”

A survey last week by the Associated Press and eight newspapers, including the Observer, showed less than a third of lawmakers are willing to publicly commit to supporting repeal. And almost all were Democrats.

Dupree said N.C. cities and schools have submitted 133 bids for NCAA events with a potential economic impact of $250 million.

“In a matter of days, our state’s sports tourism industry will suffer crushing, long-term losses and will essentially close its doors to NCAA business,” he wrote legislators. “Our window to act is closing rapidly.”

But there doesn’t appear to be any movement in the General Assembly to repeal the bill.

In December, a repeal effort failed when a bill sponsored by GOP Senate Leader Phil Berger failed. The measure would have repealed HB2 and enacting a six-month moratorium on ordinances such as Charlotte’s that prompted the law in the first place.

HB2 prohibits ordinances like Charlotte’s, which extended anti-discrimination protections to the LGBT community and allowed transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify.

After Berger called for a vote on repeal – while planning a separate vote on the moratorium – Senate Democrats joined 16 Republicans in voting against repeal. Democrats said they objected to a moratorium on local ordinances. Republicans said they didn’t trust Charlotte or other cities not turn around and re-enact sweeping LGBT measures.

Berger has blamed Cooper for persuading Democratic senators to vote against repeal.

“Right now there’s no attempt to move on HB2 at all,” Sen. Tommy Tucker of Union County said Monday, “because the folks want a clean repeal and that’s not going to happen. Unless there some compromises made on both sides, I don’t see any movement to help with the situation.”

In a statement Friday, Berger said, “HB2 would have been long gone if Gov. Cooper had not directed all Senate Democrats to block its repeal.”

“And he is going to have to work toward a compromise that keeps women from being forced to share bathrooms and shower facilities with men to move past this distraction.”

The NCAA said it hasn’t yet determined future championship sites. It expects to announce them in April.

In his letter, Dupree said “Our last chance to save these events is now.”

“It will be a shame if HB2 is resolved one day too late,” he wrote.

This story was originally published February 6, 2017 at 12:29 PM with the headline "Gov. Cooper: ‘No time to waste’ in repealing HB2."