LGBT civil rights groups filed a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s sweeping anti-LGBT law, HB 2. The plaintiffs allege that through HB 2, North Carolina sends a purposeful message that LGBT people are second-class citizens who are undeserving of the privacy, respect, and protections afforded others in the state. The trial court granted the plaintiffs motion for preliminary injunction and halted enforcement of HB 2.

On October 25, 2016, NCLR filed an amicus brief before the Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit in Carcano v. McCrory arguing that laws that singling out transgender people for discrimination must be subjected to strict constitutional scrutiny and that North Carolina’s House Bill 2 (HB 2) fails that test. The brief also argued that North Carolina’s true purpose in passing HB 2 was to target and disadvantage transgender people and not, as the state contended, to protect so-called “privacy” interests. The brief was filed on behalf of NCLR, GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), FORGE, the Transgender Law & Policy Institute (TLPI), and Trans People of Color Coalition (TPOCC).

Following the election of Governor Cooper, the state legislature amended HB 2 and the parties reached a settlement, which was entered in October 2017.