NORTH CAROLINA – While some cities across the Tar Heel State have put in place LGBTQ+ protections of their own, some major cities, like Raleigh, don't have any specific protections in place yet.

What You Need To Know


  • In April, democratic lawmakers took four bills to the senate. One would repeal House Bill 2 (HB2), also known as the controversial bathroom bill.

  • All four bills are still in the discussion phase. None have passed yet.

  • Orange County, Chapel Hill, Carborro and Hillsborough are among the individual jurisdictions that all have passed city ordinances to protect LGBTQ+ folks from discrimination. So far there are no statewide protections.

Pride month is celebrated every June in the United States. However, staff at the LGBT Center of Raleigh say they would like to see more done to protect folks from acts of discrimination.

“There isn't anything statewide. I think that's why there are so many cities and counties and towns that are kind of bringing these things up,” Kori Hennessey, the director of education and programs for the LGBT Center of Raleigh, said.

Since House Bill 142 expired in late 2020, multiple cities across North Carolina have now put their own protective policies in place. Those jurisdictions include, Orange County, Greensboro, Durham, and the towns of Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and Carrboro.

But major cities, like Raleigh, are still behind. Right now, there is no recourse for being discriminated against in things like housing or employment if you identify as LGBTQ+.

“A landlord could realistically say to somebody, finding out they're in a same gender couple or if they are transgender and they're uncomfortable with that, or whatever the reason may be...they can evict them,” Lindsey Lughes, the executive director of the LGBT Center of Raleigh, explained.

Five years after HB2, also known as the controversial "bathroom bill," pushed North Carolina into the spotlight, Democratic lawmakers introduced four bills in April aimed at providing broad statewide LGBTQ+ protections.

The package has three bills that lawmakers failed to pass previously. One would prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ+ North Carolinians on multiple fronts, including housing, employment and education.

Another bill would completely repeal the HB2, which was originally passed in 2016 and controversially led schools and public facilities containing a single-gender restroom, to only let people of the corresponding sex as listed on their birth certificate to use them.

The third bill would ban conversion therapy among minors. The fourth would not let lawyers use a strategy that blames a defendant's actions on a victim's sexuality or gender identity.

All four bills have been filed, but none have passed yet.

“I think it absolutely needs to be statewide because we know that going city by city, or even county by county, is not going to be the most effective way to get this done in a state our size,” Lughes added.