The president of the N.C. NAACP is calling for protests against HB2 until the law is repealed.

The Rev. William Barber called on civil rights activists to consider sit-ins until the General Assembly reverses course on the law, which blocked Charlotte’s extension of anti-discrimination ordinance to include sexual identity. Since Gov. Pat McCrory signed the law last month, corporations and civil and LGBT rights organizations have criticized HB2, including the Freedom Center for Social Justice, NCAA, Bank of America, Lowe’s Home Centers and Apple. Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat who is challenging McCrory in the governor’s race, announced he won’t defend the law in a suit filed last week in federal court.

”We cannot be silent in the face of this race-based, class-based, homophobic attack on wage earners, civil rights, and the LGBTQ community,” Barber said in a statement. “Unless Gov. McCrory and the legislature repeal HB2 by April 21, the Forward Together Moral Movement, better known as ‘Moral Monday,’ will consider launching a campaign of sit-ins at the General Assembly – a moral witness against this unconstitutional and immoral legislation.”

McCrory is pushing back, arguing the law is a “common-sense” approach to protecting women and girls in bathrooms and locker rooms transgender people would be allowed to use with the Charlotte ordinance. He blames the media for misreporting the law’s impact.

“There’s no doubt there is a well-coordinated, national campaign to smear our state’s reputation after we passed a common-sense law to ensure no government can take away our basic expectations of privacy in bathrooms, locker rooms and showers,” said Josh Ellis, McCrory’s communications director. “Governor McCrory appreciated the opportunity to sit down and deal with these complex issues through conversation and dialogue as opposed to political threats and economic retaliation.”

HB 2 bars local governments from passing ordinances that affect wages, work hours, benefits, leave policies or minority set-aside programs. HB 2 prohibits lawsuits in state court for workplace discrimination and makes it legal for businesses to fire or refuse to hire people because of sexual or gender identity.

“They believe North Carolinans are too busy to read their bigoted law,” said Bishop Tonyia Rawls, executive director of The Freedom Center for Social Justice. “They think we will not grasp its explicit, far-reaching and radical impact on our civic and economic life. HB 2 traumatizes our democracy. It impairs our local governments. It undermines the rights of most citizens. And it diminishes civil rights and basic human respect for transgender children and adults who wish to use public restrooms in a safe, dignified manner.”

State Senate President Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) said in a statement the state will prevail.

“This lawsuit takes this debate out of the hands of voters and instead attempts to argue with a straight face that there is a previously undiscovered ‘right’ in the U.S. Constitution for men to use women's bathrooms and locker rooms – but we are confident the court will find the General Assembly acted properly in accordance with existing state and federal law," they said.

Said Rabbi Fred Guttman of Temple Emanuel: “Our faith and moral traditions demand that we love our neighbors as we do ourselves. That is reason enough for every citizen to raise a moral dissent against this extremist Bill. It’s not just about which bathrooms transgender persons may use, but it undoes constitutional protections for all citizens.”

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