NC Republican lawmakers introduce 'bathroom bill' with shades of HB2

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- A new bill introduced in the state legislature is evoking memories of the controversial "bathroom bill" that became North Carolina law nine years ago.

On Tuesday, state Republicans filed a bill to restrict transgender people from using public restrooms that don't correspond to their biological sex.

Senate Bill 516, the "Women's Safety and Protection Act," requires bathrooms in public schools and other facilities to only be used by one designated biological sex at a time.

The bill restricts transgender people of the right to change the gender on their birth certificate and would also require all driver's licenses to reflect a person's sex at birth.

NC Values Coalition Press Director Ashley Vaughan applauded the bill, saying, "North Carolina must return to the common sense understanding that men are men, women are women, and men should not be allowed to rob women of their safety and privacy by invading their private spaces."

A similar law, House Bill 2, passed in 2016, restricting transgender people from using the bathroom corresponding to the gender they aligned with, sparked major controversy.

This bill does not affect private entities, and it does not affect employment

On Tuesday evening, ABC11 spoke with Pat McCrory, the Republican governor who signed HB 2 into law - and also with a high school student who identifies as "non-binary" and is concerned about how a similar bill might affect them.

"It's really hard because most people don't have to be like, 'OK, let me think about how safe I'm going to be when I go to the bathroom,''" said Phoenix Bilodeau, a senior at Willow Spring High School. Bilodeau said the decision about which bathroom to use as a biological female who's since transitioned is still difficult.

"It's alarming because there are people like me who most people would look at and think, oh, that looks like a man. And then these laws pass," Bilodeau said. "And so I have to use the women's bathroom. So they're like 'why are you in here,' and I'm like 'well, you voted for me to be in here.'"

According to an Associated Press analysis of state financial records at the time, HB 2, which was passed before being repealed a year later, led to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost economic investment in North Carolina.

"The American public has moved to the side of protecting female privacy and locker rooms, women's sports and women's prisons," McCrory said Wednesday. "And that was not clearly understood when the original privacy bill was introduced nine years ago."

ABC11 asked McCrory about the risks this time around and whether it was worth venturing down a similar path with SB 516. McCrory said he believes the political environment is different now and that most Americans and corporations won't object to this bill.

"I anticipate some people going, 'look, you're going to do what we did nine years ago.' The environment has changed. So you know, to me it's common sense and we ought to move on," the former governor said.