LGBT law left largely intact

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C.

The North Carolina General Assembly has largely left intact a law limiting protections for LGBT people.

The House and Senate approved a change late Friday night that restores workers’ ability to use state law to sue over workplace discrimination. However, the change doesn’t enhance workplace protections on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Legislative leaders have said that’s the only change to the law planned this session.

There was no appetite among Republican lawmakers to undo a requirement that transgender people must use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates in many public buildings.

Nor did they alter provisions that exclude gender identity and sexual orientation from statewide antidiscrimination protections.

Pressure to change the law has come from several quarters, including the NBA, which has been weighing whether to keep the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte. Commissioner Adam Silver said last month that progress was needed toward changing the law this summer to ensure the event stays in the city.

The league issued a joint statement late Thursday with the Charlotte Hornets saying they were doubtful that proposed changes would go far enough and that they “do not endorse the version of the bill that we understand is currently before the Legislature.”