RALEIGH – Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, the national American Civil Liberties Union, and Lambda Legal filed a motion for a preliminary injunction asking the court to stop the enforcement of the provisions of North Carolina House Bill 2 that target transgender people for discrimination in single-sex facilities while the case proceeds through the court system.

The three organizations and the law firm of Jenner and Block are challenging House Bill 2 in federal court on behalf of six LGBT North Carolinians and members of the ACLU of North Carolina.

"HB 2 is causing ongoing and serious harm to transgender people in North Carolina and must be put on hold while it is reviewed by the court,” said Chris Brook, ACLU of North Carolina Legal Director. “The U.S. Justice Department has made it clear that HB 2 violates federal law. Governor McCrory and the North Carolina legislature wrote into state law discrimination against transgender people who just want to be able to use public facilities safely and securely.”

“Each day that transgender North Carolinians are singled out by this harmful law, whether they are at school, at work, or just moving through their daily lives in society is another day the state is causing irreparable harm to an already vulnerable community,” said Kyle Palazzolo, Lambda Legal Staff Attorney.

“As Attorney General Lynch said this week, ‘none of us can stand by when a state enters the business of legislating identity and insists that a person pretend to be something they are not, or invents a problem that doesn’t exist as a pretext for discrimination and harassment,’ and we couldn’t agree more,” said Palazzolo.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against North Carolina and Governor McCrory for violating Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act, Title IX, and the Violence Against Women Act, just hours after North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice that asks a federal court to determine that House Bill 2 does not violate federal civil rights laws.

Read the court filings here: