(Reuters) - North Carolina on Thursday repealed a law restricting bathroom use for transgender people, hoping to bring back businesses and sports leagues that boycotted the Southern state because they saw the year-old measure as discriminatory.

However, the new law replacing the old one bans cities in the state from passing their own anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people until 2020, drawing scorn from civil rights advocates and casting doubt on whether boycotting businesses will return to the state.

Democratic Governor Roy Cooper signed the replacement bill into law after the Republican-controlled state Senate and House of Representatives approved it in separate votes in the capital, Raleigh.

The new measure rescinds House Bill 2, the so-called bathroom bill also popularly known as HB 2, which required transgender people to use the bathrooms, changing rooms and showers in state-run buildings that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity.

HB 2’s enactment a year ago prompted boycotts that cost the state economy hundreds of millions of dollars. Deutsche Bank AG and PayPal Holdings Inc reversed expansion plans in the state. Entertainers such as Bruce Springsteen and Itzhak Perlman canceled concerts.

In basketball-crazed North Carolina, the withdrawal of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament games and the National Basketball Association All-Star game, which had been awarded to Charlotte, reverberated throughout the state.

Under the new law, transgender people are once again free to use the bathroom of their choice, but they lack any recourse should a person, business or state entity eject or harass them.

The new law also denies LGBT people state legal protections in other areas such as employment and housing.

Outraged LGBT advocates, who had wanted an unconditional repeal of HB 2, were already pressuring business and sports organizations not to return.

“This (is) the end of HB 2 in name only. The bill that was passed today is a disgrace, not a ‘fix,’ a ‘reset,’ or a ‘compromise,’ and certainly not a repeal,” Mara Keisling, director of the Washington-based National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a statement.

“Putting any kind of moratorium on civil rights, whether six months or three years long, is dangerous and wrong,” she said.

Deutsche Bank, which in response to HB 2 froze plans to create 250 jobs at its location in Cary, North Carolina, declined to comment on Thursday.

A sign protesting a North Carolina law restricting transgender bathroom access. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake

Elected political rivals on both sides of the issue claimed at least partial victories in reaching the compromise that produced the new law. Both Cooper and the Republican House speaker said they expected the NCAA to once again schedule championship events.

NCAA President Mark Emmert said at a news conference posted online by the Raleigh News and Observer newspaper that the board of directors would decide whether the change is sufficient to spur a return.

The deal to replace HB 2 came together on Wednesday night, just ahead of an NCAA deadline to amend the law.

The governor told reporters the law was imperfect but said Thursday’s action would help begin repairing North Carolina’s damaged reputation.

“I wish this were a complete, total repeal, and whenever I get the chance to do that I will do that. ... I’m going to fight every single day for LGBT protections,” Cooper said.

HB 2 was passed in response to an ordinance in Charlotte, the state’s largest city, that permitted transgender people to use the bathrooms matching their gender identity. The Charlotte ordinance alarmed social conservatives who, without evidence, feared it would endanger women and girls in intimate spaces.

House Speaker Tim Moore said the new state law protected bathroom safety, but some social conservatives were unsatisfied.

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“The truth remains, no basketball game, corporation, or entertainment event is worth even one little girl losing her privacy and dignity to a boy in the locker room, or being harmed or frightened in a bathroom,” said Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the NC Values Coalition in Raleigh and an outspoken supporter of HB 2.

Cooper, the former state attorney general, has opposed HB 2 from the outset. He unseated former Republican Governor Pat McCrory last year in large part because of the law’s political and economic fallout, political analysts say.</s>RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina lawmakers rolled back North Carolina’s “bathroom bill” Thursday in a bid to end the backlash over transgender rights that has cost the state dearly in business projects, conventions and basketball tournaments.

The compromise plan, announced Wednesday night by the state’s Democratic governor and leaders of the Republican-controlled legislature, was worked out under mounting pressure from the NCAA, which threatened to take away more sporting events from the basketball-obsessed state as long as the law, also known as House Bill 2, remained on the books.

The new measure cleared the House and Senate in a matter of hours and was sent to Gov. Roy Cooper for his expected signature.

Among other things, it repeals the best-known section of HB2: a requirement that transgender people use the public restrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate.

But the American Civil Liberties Union and gay and transgender activists complained that the new bill still denies them certain protections from discrimination, and they demanded nothing less than full repeal.

As a result, it was unclear whether the retreat from the year-old HB2 would stop the boycotts or satisfy the NCAA. An NCAA spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking reaction.

Republican Rep. Scott Stone, who lives in Charlotte, urged his colleagues to vote for the new bill. It passed the House 70-48.

“We are impeding the growth in our revenue, in our ability to do more things for tourism, for teacher pay, while we have this stigma hanging over,” Stone said. “The time has come for us to get out from under the national spotlight for negative things. You can’t go anywhere on this planet without somebody knowing what is HB2 and having some perception about it.”

Conservatives, meanwhile, staunchly defended HB2 and bitterly denounced the new measure.

“This bill is at best a punt. At worst it is a betrayal of principle,” Republican Sen. Dan Bishop, a primary sponsor of HB2, said on the Senate floor as the rollback was approved 32-16, with nine of 15 Democrats among the yes votes.

While the new measure eliminates the rule on transgender bathroom use, it also makes clear that state legislators – not local government or school officials – are in charge of policy on public restrooms.

HB2 had also restricted local governments’ ability to enact nondiscrimination ordinances on behalf of gay or transgender people. Under the new measure, local governments can’t pass any new protections for workplaces, hotels and restaurants until December 2020.

That moratorium, according to GOP leaders, would allow time for pending federal litigation over transgender rights to play out.

“This is a significant compromise from all sides on an issue that has been discussed and discussed and discussed in North Carolina for a long period of time,” Senate leader Phil Berger said. “It is something that I think satisfies some people, dissatisfies some people, but I think it’s a good thing for North Carolina.”

Gay rights activists blasted the proposal, saying it was not a true repeal.

“It doesn’t matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican, if you vote for this bill, you are not a friend of the LGBT community,” Equality North Carolina executive director Chris Sgro said. “You are not standing on the right side of the moral arc of history or with the civil rights community.”

James Esseks, director of the ACLU LGBT Project, said lawmakers “should be ashamed of this backroom deal.” “This is not a repeal of HB2. Instead, they’re reinforcing the worst aspects of the law,” he said in a statement.

Cooper was elected in November on a platform that called for repeal of HB2, which enacted under the man he defeated, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

The deal came together after the NCAA warned that North Carolina wouldn’t be considered for championship events from 2018 to 2022 unless HB2 was changed. The sports governing body said it would start making decisions on host cities this week and announce them in April.

Republican House Speaker Tim Moore said that he hadn’t spoken directly to the NCAA but that he had been told by business leaders who served as intermediaries that the bill should prove acceptable to the NCAA.

The NCAA already pulled championship events from the state this year because of HB2. Also, businesses canceled expansions or moves to North Carolina, the NBA withdrew its All-Star Game from Charlotte, and entertainers such as Bruce Springsteen canceled concerts.

An Associated Press analysis (http://apne.ws/2ocOSnu) this week found that the law would cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years.

On Thursday, Springsteen guitarist Steven Van Zandt tweeted that the legislature’s move fell short: “It ain’t over until the LGBT community and the ACLU say it’s over.”

During impassioned debate on the House floor, conservatives accused their colleagues of caving in to pressure from sports leagues.

Republican Rep. Bert Jones sarcastically suggested that the banners outside the building be replaced with a flag of the NCAA and the white flag of surrender.

And GOP Rep. Carl Ford said: “If we could have props in here, I’d take a basketball covered in money and roll it down the middle aisle there. Because that’s what this is about: money and basketball. My family is not for sale. My constituents are not for sale.”

HB2 supporters argued that the bathroom law was needed to preserve people’s privacy and protect them from sexual predators. Opponents said that was nonsense and that the danger was imaginary.</s>North Carolina Republican lawmakers said late on Wednesday they had reached a deal to repeal the state’s controversial law prohibiting transgender people from using restrooms in accordance with their gender identities.

The compromise, reached with Democratic Governor Roy Cooper and set to go before the legislature for a vote Thursday morning, would still ban local municipalities, schools and others from regulating bathroom access.

It would also effectively forbid cities from offering their own job and restroom protections to vulnerable groups for nearly four years.

“Compromise requires give and take from all sides, and we are pleased this proposal fully protects bathroom safety and privacy,” the state’s top Republican lawmakers, Senate leader Phil Berger and House of Representatives Speaker Tim Moore, said in a statement released late Wednesday.

The pair announced the deal at an impromptu news conference.

The compromise with Cooper, a staunch opponent of the bathroom law, was reached hours before the state was reportedly set to lose its ability to host any NCAA basketball championships.

The college athletic association is one of numerous organizations to sanction or boycott North Carolina in the wake of the law’s passage last year.

Cooper said earlier this week that the measure could end up costing the state nearly $4 billion.

He said he supported the compromise. “It’s not a perfect deal, but it repeals House Bill 2 and begins to repair our reputation.”

But it remained unclear whether the compromise would be acceptable to those who believe North Carolina was unfriendly to the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

In an impassioned news conference before the deal was announced, several leading LGBT activists decried its provisions, including the bar on municipalities regulating employment practices and “public accommodations”.

“This is a dirty deal,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. He vowed to continue fighting North Carolina in court and in the public sphere if the new measure passes and is signed by Cooper.

On Twitter Wednesday night, San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co., which has publicly opposed North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law, urged lawmakers to reject what it called a “backroom” deal.</s>(CNN) — North Carolina lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill that repeals the state’s controversial bathroom law in a move meant to end a year of tumult that saw businesses leave and major sporting events and concerts canceled.

Gov. Roy Cooper signed the measure into law, saying, “For over a year now, House Bill 2 has been a dark cloud hanging over our great state. It has stained our reputation. It has discriminated against our people and it has caused great economic harm in many of our communities.”

Cooper said the new law is “not a perfect deal and it is not my preferred solution.”

He wanted a law that added protections for LGBTQ North Carolinians, but said that wasn’t possible with Republicans holding a supermajority in the Legislature.

Fierce criticism remains from LGBTQ groups, which say the new bill — which eliminates rules about who can use which restroom but retains other features — still allows for discrimination against transgender people.

Cooper said the protections are temporarily delayed, and he will work to ensure they are not denied forever.

The bill, a compromise agreed to Wednesday by Cooper and the state’s top two Republican legislators, was approved by the House and Senate after contentious debate.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether organizations that opposed the outgoing bathroom law — such as the NCAA — would be satisfied and consider restoring events and other ventures in the state.

“Nobody is 100% happy, but I will say I’m 95% happy,” said House Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican who beacked the compromise.

What the new bill does

— It repeals last year’s House Bill 2. That bill had required that people at a government-run facility must use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to the gender on their birth certificate, if the rooms in question are multiple-occupancy.

— It effectively maintains a key feature of HB2 by leaving regulation of bathroom access solely in control of the Legislature.

— It prevents local governments, until December 2020, from passing or amending their own nondiscrimination ordinances relating to private employment and public accommodation.

That last point is meant to prevent ordinances such as one Charlotte City Council passed in February 2016, before HB2. That ordinance added gender identity to the city’s protections against discrimination in public accommodations, and allowed transgender people to use the bathroom that matches the gender they identify with.

State lawmakers introduced HB2 a month later, in part to wipe out the Charlotte ordinance.

Greg Wallace, a professor at Campbell Law School in Raleigh, told CNN that the bill effectively restores the status quo, pre-HB2 — with the exception of the stipulations.

A day after Cooper — who beat incumbent Pat McCrory with a campaign promise to repeal the bathroom law — and Republican lawmakers announced the compromise, the Senate passed it 32-16 and the House then voted 70-48.

LGBT groups and other HB2 critics said the deal is a “repeal” in name only — with one advocate calling it “HB2.0.” Focusing on the two clauses the compromise added back, they say the bill fails to protect transgender people from discrimination.

“This so-called ‘deal’ is politics at its worst and was only made as the state faced losing key NCAA events and further economic damage. What we witnessed was a last-minute idea thrown together with little thought of protecting transgender residents,” GLAAD said.

“Disappointed the #NCGA just voted for a bill which fails to end LGBT discrimination in a move to put basketball over civil rights. #ncpol,” the ACLU said on Twitter.

The basketball reference is a nod to the NCAA, which moved 2016-2017 championship events out of the state because of HB2 and said it would soon decide where 2018-2022 championships will be held.

That may have put pressure on North Carolina’s politicians to reach this week’s deal. Indeed, during debate on the House floor, several representatives said they thought their colleagues were inappropriately rushing the vote to satisfy the NCAA.

“If we could have props in here, I would take a basketball covered in money and roll it down the middle aisle there, because that’s what this is about, money and basketball,” state Rep. Carl Ford, a Republican, said before voting no on the repeal.

Chris Sgro, executive director of Equality NC, called the agreement a “shell piece of a legislation,” on which the LGBTQ groups had not been consulted.

“The initiative is not a repeal,” Sgro said. “It’s doubling down on the discrimination that HB2 exacts — it’s HB2.0. It doesn’t allow municipalities to protect people from discrimination ’til 2020.”

Moore, the House speaker, said the compromise ensures cities didn’t go “above and beyond” what the state was willing to mandate.

He said the bill puts North Carolina in line with federal guidelines and 30 other states. This should guarantee that entities such as the NBA and NCAA don’t treat North Carolina differently than they would any other state, he said.

Senate Leader Phil Berger has said the prohibition against city discrimination ordinances until December 2020 was designed to “allow federal litigation to play out.”

Moore gave a further argument, saying the state didn’t need a patchwork of anti-discrimination laws.

“We’ve got until 2020 to work this out,” Moore said.

The deal came after several other failed attempts over the past year. State leaders faced considerable economic pressure, because companies and organizations that opposed the law withdrew events from the state and called off job-expansion plans.

HB2 is estimated to have cost the state millions of dollars through the loss of jobs, businesses and consumer spending, though by one measure, the losses only amount to about 0.1% of the state’s total GDP.

The 2017 NBA All-Star Game, which was held in February, was moved from Charlotte to New Orleans. The NCAA relocated several college athletic championship events for the 2016-17 season because of the law and implied five more years of tournaments were at stake if HB2 remained.

The NCAA stated last week that it had moved the championships “because of the cumulative impact HB2 had on local communities’ ability to assure a safe, healthy, discrimination free atmosphere for all those watching and participating in our events.”

It remains to be seen how the NCAA will view the legislative action.

When the NCAA announced in September it was moving championship events out of North Carolina, it listed the following factors:

North Carolina laws invalidate any local law that treats sexual orientation as a protected class or has a purpose to prevent discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individuals. North Carolina has the only statewide law that makes it unlawful to use a restroom different from the gender on one’s birth certificate, regardless of gender identity. North Carolina law provides legal protections for government officials to refuse services to the LGBT community. Five states plus numerous cities prohibit travel to North Carolina for public employees and representatives of public institutions, which could include student-athletes and campus athletics staff. These states are New York, Minnesota, Washington, Vermont and Connecticut.</s>WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., March 30 (Reuters) - North Carolina legislators were set to vote on Thursday on a deal to repeal a law prohibiting transgender people from using restrooms in accordance with their gender identities, a measure that has prompted boycotts by companies and sports leagues.

Republican legislative leaders said late on Wednesday that they had reached a compromise with Democratic Governor Roy Cooper to scrap the year-old law, the only one of its kind in the United States. The announcement came days after the National Collegiate Athletic Association said it would not award the state hosting duties for its championship events through 2022 without changes to the law.

The three-part proposal would repeal the law known as House Bill 2. However, new provisions would still ban local municipalities, schools and others from regulating bathroom access. The deal also blocks cities from offering their own job and restroom protections to vulnerable groups for nearly four years.

It was not clear whether the changes going before the Republican-controlled legislature would be enough to convince the NCAA and other sports leagues and companies to end boycotts of North Carolina in protest of the law. Advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people said the new version would allow discrimination to continue.

"Compromise requires give and take from all sides, and we are pleased this proposal fully protects bathroom safety and privacy," the state's top Republican lawmakers, Senate leader Phil Berger and House of Representatives Speaker Tim Moore, said in a statement.

The pair announced the deal at an impromptu news conference after days of negotiation between lawmakers and the governor. As recently as Tuesday, elected leaders had remained at an impasse.

Cooper, a staunch opponent of the bathroom law who took office in January, said the compromise was a step in the right direction.

"It's not a perfect deal, but it repeals House Bill 2 and begins to repair our reputation," said Cooper, who earlier this week noted the current law could end up costing the state nearly $4 billion.

Several leading LGBT activists decried the new deal's provisions and called on Democrats to reject it. They said the compromise would continue to target transgender people.

"Lawmakers must reject this disgraceful backroom deal that uses the rights of LGBT people as a bargaining chip," said Sarah Gillooly, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina. (Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)</s>In true Carolina fashion, the N.C. legislature is passing a buzzer-beater bill repealing the infamous Bathroom Bill, right in the nick of time to be considered for a championship by the NCAA.

The House and Senate passed a “compromise” bill Thursday repealing the infamous House Bill 2 that cost the state at least $630 million in lost business and was projected to translate into $3.7 billion in losses over the next decade, according to the AP. The NCAA released a statement last week reaffirming its stance to avoid the Tar Heel state “absent any change in the law.” The same statement reminded NC lawmakers that the NCAA would begin making champion site selections for 2018-2022 this week and a local sports leader confirmed an exact hour deadline with the NCAA--today at noon--which he tweeted out. A member of The NCAA accounted for $51M in lost business when it pulled its championship from the state this year.

But not all residents are rejoicing. In fact, the Senate vote on the new House Bill 142 didn’t fall along party lines. Certain Democrats rejected the proposed legislation because it prohibits local governments and state agencies, including the UNC system, from making rules that protect the rights of LGBTQ people to use the public facilities they choose. It also blocks local governments from regulating private employment practices.

Governor Cooper is expected to sign the law, despite taking a stance against what this new bill contains while on the campaign trail.

"I think local governments should have the authority to fight discrimation and make sure employees are protected," Cooper said in November. "They should be able to require businesses with whom they contract to pay their employees a living wage. This is part of what HB2 took away."

The bathroom issue stemmed from a Charlotte ordinance that extended protections to transgender residents, and the new ‘compromise’ bill prohibits any similar legislation until 2020.

The public outcry over the bill and the resulting economic losses is largely credited as the reason former Governor Pat McCrory lost to Governor Roy Cooper in November. The gubernatorial shakeup was a surprising outcome in a state that gave its 15 electoral votes to Donald Trump in the same election cycle.

It’s hard to square two factions of people whose demands are mutually exclusive: relegate transgender people to the bathroom that corresponds with their birth certificate or allow them to use the restroom of the gender with which they identify. Being transgender means that these two genders are at odds with each other, unless a person’s birth certificate has been altered. In North Carolina, a person must undergo gender reassignment surgery, an expensive process, in order to have their birth certificate revised.

Activists on the left say the rules are discriminatory.

“The so-called “deal’ that North Carolina lawmakers are attempting to ram through today would effectively ban LGBTQ non-discrimination protections statewide through 2020 and permanently bar cities from passing laws that ensure transgender people can access facilities in accordance with their identity,” said a statement released by the Human Rights Campaign that calls the new law “unconstitutional.”

Ben Graumann, Director of Communications at LGBTQ foundation Equality NC says the bill leaves transgender NC residents "in a limbo and it's going to leave them there for four years until the end of 2020." The non-profit recently hired a director of transgender policy as the direct result of the HB2 saga which has inflicted great damage on North Carolina's transgender community, he said

Governor Cooper knows the bill isn't perfect, but he hopes it's enough to get North Carolina off the sidelines of the business recruitment game.

“I support the House Bill 2 repeal compromise that will be introduced tomorrow,” he said in a statement. “It’s not a perfect deal, but it repeals House Bill 2 and begins to repair our reputation.”</s>A deal that North Carolina lawmakers reached to repeal the state's controversial and costly "bathroom bill" passed on Thursday after a contentious debate — but the compromise has left LGBTQ advocates exasperated, with some calling it "shameful" and an "outrageous betrayal."

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper signed the bill into law just hours after the state's House passed the bill 70-48 on Thursday afternoon after nearly two hours of heated debate.

The state's Senate passed the bill by a 32-16 vote earlier in the day, after a deal was struck late Wednesday between the state's new governor, who campaigned on fully repealing the HB2 bill, and North Carolina's leading Republican lawmakers, who have supported the measure.

Cooper announced he had signed the bill at a press conference Thursday afternoon, saying HB2 had been "a dark cloud hanging over our great state."

"It has stained our reputation, it has discriminated against our people and it has caused great economic harm in many of our communities," he said.

Cooper acknowledged the limitations of the deal, and said the new law was "not a perfect deal and it's not my preferred solution. It stops short of many things we need to do as a state."

HB2 was passed last March under former Gov. Pat McCrory. The bill sparked a massive political and financial backlash and a showdown with the NCAA.

The NCAA has said it would not let North Carolina host college championship games through the year 2022 unless there were changes to the law made by Thursday.

LGBTQ and civil rights advocates have called for a full repeal of the bill, and denounced the new compromise over provisions they say will still allow for discrimination: namely a three-year ban on local nondiscrimination ordinances.

It was one of those local ordinances that led to the state's Republican-controlled legislature to pass HB2 in the first place, after state lawmakers sought to block a law passed in Charlotte that allowed transgender people to use the restroom they wanted.

HB2 prohibited Charlotte's law and stopped other municipal governments from passing similar measures.

The compromise bill weaves in several provisions, including repealing HB2, leaving state legislators in charge of policy over multi-stall bathrooms, and puts a temporary halt on local governments passing nondiscrimination ordinances until 2020 — which lawmakers say would allot time for ongoing court cases on transgender issues to play out.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal released a statement condemning the bill's passing.

"This is not a repeal of HB 2. Instead, they're reinforcing the worst aspects of the law," James Esseks, director of the ACLU LGBT Project, said in the statement. "North Carolina lawmakers should be ashamed of this backroom deal that continues to play politics with the lives of LGBT North Carolinians."

Simone Bell, Southern regional Director at Lambda Legal added: "Lawmakers replaced a bad bill with another bad bill. This fake repeal is an attempt to silence LGBT people. It is shameful to stamp a start date on equality. We demand a full, clean repeal, and that includes comprehensive non-discrimination protections."

The ACLU of North Carolina said it was delivering a letter to Cooper urging him to veto the measure, despite his expressed support.

The group had come out strongly against the deal in a series of tweets earlier Thursday, calling on the NCAA to reject the deal and not "settle for this fake repeal."

Even transgender icon, reality TV star and Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner said on Twitter that the new bill ordered North Carolina cities "to discriminate against LGBT people until at least 2020."

And Rev. William Barber, the president of the state's NAACP, said in a statement before it was passed that "any moratorium on civil rights is not a compromise, it is a contradiction with the principle of equal protection under the law and our moral values."

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality said the compromise bill was "a cynical ploy that will continue to hurt North Carolina and transgender people."

"Transgender North Carolinians are being squarely targeted by HB2 and would continue to be targeted by the provisions of this new law," Keisling said, later adding. "It is an outrageous betrayal that [Cooper] supports this fake repeal."

North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis came out in support of the bill's passing in a statement on Twitter on Thursday, saying he was glad state lawmakers reached a "commonsense compromise to repeal HB2."

Cooper said at his press conference Thursday that "this was the best deal" he could get the Republican-led legislature to agree to.

"In a perfect world with a good General Assembly, we would have repealed House Bill 2 fully today and added full state wide protections for LGBT North Carolinians," he said, adding that Republican lawmakers would not allow him to pass those protections.

"But this is an important goal that I will keep fighting for," he said.

In a joint statement on Wednesday when the deal was announced, Republicans House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger said, "Compromise requires give and take from all sides, and we are pleased this proposal fully protects bathroom safety and privacy."

The compromise comes after a failed attempt to repeal HB2 in December.

An analysis from the Associated Press found that HB2 would cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years.

The NBA decided to pull its 2017 All-Star game out of Charlotte back in July. The AP analysis found that the NBA, a Bruce Springsteen show as well as other canceled conventions, concerts and sports events have deprived the state of more than $196 million.

Other financial hits the state has suffered, the AP notes, include abandoned plans for a PayPal facility that would have added an estimate $2.66 billion to the state's economy and a cancelled Ringo Starr concert worth about $33,000 in revenue.</s>North Carolina lawmakers voted Thursday to roll back North Carolina's "bathroom bill" in a bid to end the backlash over transgender rights that has cost the state dearly in business projects, conventions and basketball tournaments.

The compromise plan, announced Wednesday night by the state's Democratic governor and leaders of the Republican-controlled legislature, was worked out under mounting pressure from the NCAA, which threatened to take away more sporting events.

It was sent to Gov. Roy Cooper for his signature. Cooper had urged lawmakers to support the deal, which among other things repeals a year-old law that said transgender people have to use the public restrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate.

The compromise was condemned by some on both sides, with conservatives staunchly defending the current law, also known as House Bill 2, and gay and transgender activists complaining that the new measure still denies them protection from discrimination. They demanded nothing less than full repeal.

As a result, it was unclear whether the retreat from HB2 would quell the furor or satisfy the NCAA.

Republican Sen. Dan Bishop, a primary sponsor of HB2, denounced the new deal on the Senate floor, where it was approved 32-16, with nine of 15 Democrats among the yes votes.

"This bill is at best a punt. At worst it is a betrayal of principle," the Charlotte-area legislator said.

The House passed the bill 70-48 later in the day.

Republican Rep. Scott Stone, who lives in Charlotte, urged his colleagues to vote for the bill.

"We are impeding the growth in our revenue, in our ability to do more things for tourism, for teacher pay, while we have this stigma hanging over," Stone said. "The time has come for us to get out from under the national spotlight for negative things. You can't go anywhere on this planet without somebody knowing what is HB2 and having some perception about it."

While the new measure eliminates the rule on transgender bathroom use, it also says state legislators — not local government or school officials — are in charge of policy on public restrooms.

House Bill 2 had also restricted local governments' ability to enact nondiscrimination ordinances. Under the bill just approved, local governments can't pass new nondiscrimination protections for workplaces, hotels and restaurants until December 2020.

That moratorium, according to GOP House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger, would allow time for pending federal litigation over transgender issues to play out.

"This is a significant compromise from all sides on an issue that has been discussed and discussed and discussed in North Carolina for a long period of time," Berger said. "It is something that I think satisfies some people, dissatisfied some people, but I think it's a good thing for North Carolina."

Gay rights activists blasted the proposal, saying it was not a true repeal.

"It doesn't matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican, if you vote for this bill, you are not a friend of the LGBT community," Equality North Carolina Executive Director Chris Sgro said. "You are not standing on the right side of the moral arc of history or with the civil rights community."

The deal came as the NCAA said North Carolina wouldn't be considered for championship events from 2018 to 2022 unless HB2 was changed. The sports governing body said it would start making decisions on host cities this week and announce them in April.

North Carolina cities, schools and other groups have submitted more than 130 bids for such events.

The NCAA already pulled championship events from the state this year because of HB2.

HB2 also prompted businesses to halt expansions and entertainers and sports organizations to cancel or move events, including the NBA All-Star game in Charlotte. An Associated Press analysis (http://apne.ws/2ocOSnu) this week found that the law would cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years.

HB2 supporters argued that the bathroom law was needed to preserve people's privacy and protect them from sexual predators. Opponents said that was nonsense and that the danger was imaginary.

Several potential compromises have failed over the past year, including one during a special session in December that collapsed amid partisan finger-pointing.</s>Transgender activists in North Carolina criticise an agreement made between Republican legislative leaders and the Democratic governor over a controversial ‘bathroom bill’. Gay rights groups oppose the replacement measure for the March 2016 law known as House Bill 2 (HB2), saying it would still restrict LGBT protections from discrimination</s>Kanoke_46/iStock/Thinkstock(CHARLOTTE) — North Carolina lawmakers approved a measure on Thursday to repeal the state’s controversial “bathroom bill,” which critics have called the most anti-LGBT bill in the country.

Legislators have been eager to roll back the year-old law, which is estimated to have already cost the Tar Heel State millions of dollars in lost business, including from the cancellation of major sports events.

But LGBT activists have denounced the new legislation, which they say would still allow discrimination by leaving the state in charge of determining which public bathrooms transgender individuals can access and barring municipalities for several years from passing local laws to protect people from discrimination.

What is the ‘bathroom bill’?

The Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, commonly known as House Bill 2 or HB2, was signed into law in North Carolina by Republican former Gov. Pat McCrory on March 23, 2016.

HB2, dubbed the “bathroom bill,” declares that state law overrides all local ordinances concerning wages, employment and public accommodations. Thus, HB2 bars local municipalities from establishing their own rules prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing and public accommodations, such as public restrooms.

The law also directs all public schools, government agencies and public college campuses to require that multiple-occupancy bathrooms and changing facilities, such as locker rooms, be designated for use only by people based on their “biological sex” as stated on their birth certificate. Under the law, transgender individuals are allowed to use bathrooms and changing facilities consistent with their gender identity only if they get the biological sex on their birth certificate changed.

The “bathroom bill” has sparked widespread backlash, boycotts, protests and even legal battles. The NBA, for example, announced in July 2016 that it was moving its 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte over concerns about the law. Similarly, the NCAA announced in September 2016 it would relocate its 2016–17 season championship games out of the Tar Heel State.

The national American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of North Carolina, Lambda Legal and a private law firm announced last year that they had filed a federal lawsuit challenging HB2 on behalf of four LGBT North Carolinians and members of the ACLU of North Carolina. The case is scheduled for oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, on May 10.

Why was HB2 passed and who supports it?

Republican lawmakers, who make up the majority of North Carolina’s General Assembly, passed HB2 in response to a then-newly approved ordinance in Charlotte that would have prohibited discrimination in housing and public accommodations based on someone’s gender identity or sexual orientation.

John Rustin, president of the North Carolina Family Policy Council, testified before the state’s Senate last year, saying that the Charlotte ordinance “means men could enter women’s restrooms and locker rooms — placing the privacy, safety, and dignity of women and the elderly at great risk.”

McCrory agreed in a statement he wrote after signing the bill.

“The basic expectation of privacy in the most personal of settings, a restroom or locker room, for each gender was violated by government overreach and intrusion by the mayor and city council of Charlotte,” he said at the time. “As a result, I have signed legislation passed by a bipartisan majority to stop this breach of basic privacy and etiquette which was to go into effect April 1.”

What is the ‘compromise’ bill?

After days of marathon negotiations, North Carolina’s Republican House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger announced at a news conference late Wednesday night that they had reached “a major compromise agreement” with the state’s new Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, to repeal HB2. Cooper, who narrowly defeated McCrory in 2016, is a staunch critic of HB2.

The proposed bill would repeal HB2. But it would still prevent local governments, schools and others from regulating multi-stall bathrooms, showers and changing areas. Regulation of those facilities would still fall to the state legislature.

The compromise bill would also prohibit local governments from enacting their own nondiscrimination ordinances until December 2020. That temporary moratorium would allow time for pending federal litigation over transgender issues to play out, according to Moore and Berger.

“Compromise requires give and take from all sides, and we are pleased this proposal fully protects bathroom safety and privacy,” the two Republican lawmakers said in a joint statement Wednesday night.

The deal came after the NCAA had said North Carolina sites won’t be considered for athletic championship events for several years “absent any change” in HB2. It’s unclear whether the NCAA, which regulates athletics at more than 1,200 colleges nationwide, would be satisfied by the new proposal.

What the compromise bill doesn’t do is answer the issue at the heart of HB2 and the Charlotte ordinance. As The Charlotte Observer’s editorial board points out, the new legislation “dodges the whole bathroom question.”

They write, “Charlotte’s ordinance allowed transgender individuals to use the public bathroom of the gender with which they identify. HB2 banned that. The new law does not specify what transgender people are to do.”

What’s next for the compromise bill?

The proposed bill cleared all of its hurdles today in North Carolina’s legislature, passing through the Senate this morning and the House this afternoon.

The bill was sent to the governor, who supports the measure and is expected to sign it despite sharp criticism from activists, according to ABC-owned station WTVD in Raleigh.

Previous attempts to repeal HB2 have failed over the past year, including one during a special session in North Carolina’s legislature in December that fell apart amid partisan finger-pointing.

What are opponents saying?

LGBTQ rights groups and activists who have fought against HB2 blasted the compromise bill, particularly over its temporarily banning municipalities from passing their own anti-discrimination laws.

“At its core, it’s a statewide prohibition on equality,” Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin told reporters on Wednesday of the compromise bill. He said Cooper, whom gay rights activists supported in North Carolina’s gubernatorial election last year, could get the blame for backing a “dirty deal.”

“This repeal is nothing but a replacement of the same discrimination of the original HB2,” ACLU staff attorney Chase Strangio told ABC News in a statement today. “With so many trans young people facing discrimination, trans women of color being murdered, and real problems facing our country, it is a disgrace that North Carolina is acting once again to target our vulnerable community.”

“If you vote for this bill you are not a friend of the LGBTQ community,” Equality North Carolina executive director Chris Sgro told reporters Thursday morning.
The state legislature of North Carolina repeals the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, more commonly known as the "transgender bathroom bill." In its place, the legislature enacts a ban on cities in North Carolina from enacting "civil rights" protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people through 2020.