A controversial law that bans transgender people from using government-run toilets that match their gender identity could be repealed in North Carolina.
A special session will be held by lawmakers to reconsider the law today following months of criticism.
The legislation, which was rushed through in a single day earlier this year, is considered the latest flashpoint in the culture wars over gay and transgender rights. North Carolina was the first state to pass such a bill, and it has been been met with fierce opposition from critics who have branded it discriminatory.
Following milestone achievements in gay rights including same-sex marriage becoming legal nationwide in 2015, transgender rights have become an increasingly contentious issue in the US, with advocates saying the law should afford them the same rights extended to racial and religious minorities.
In the nine months since it passed, the bathroom law has been blamed by its opponents for hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses and the relocation of major sporting events. Outgoing Republican Governor McCrory narrowly lost a bid for re-election following a bitter campaign in which Democratic Governor-elect Roy Cooper called for repeal.
Cooper said on Monday that he had Republican assurances for a repeal, but supporters of the measure continued to lobby in favor of the law.
"It's an emergency that this bill get repealed, because it's hurting our state and hurting our people," Chris Sgro, executive Director of Equality North Carolina, a group seeking equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, said.
After the law was passed in March, leaders of more than a hundred companies, including Apple Inc, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc signed a letter calling for it to be repealed.
PayPal Holdings Inc cancelled plans to invest $3.6 million and employ 400 workers in Charlotte, the state's largest city. Deutsche Bank also scrapped job expansions.
The National Basketball Association's decision in July to yank its 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte dealt an especially stinging blow to a state passionate about hoops.
The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority estimated that the loss of the game alone cost the city $60 million in spending on hotel rooms and other local attractions.
Supporters of the legislation, meanwhile, said its financial toll on the state's economy had been overstated and urged lawmakers to hold firm against a repeal.
"No basketball game, corporation, or entertainment event is worth even one little girl losing her privacy and dignity to a boy in a locker room or being harmed or scared in a bathroom," said Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the North Carolina Values Coalition.
The evangelical Christian right has been at the forefront of the campaign to retain the law.
Earlier this year, Franklin Graham – son of evangelist Billy Graham and president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association – condemned a proposed bill in Charlotte, North Carolina, which would allow any person to use a public bathroom of their identified gender.
"I cannot see why City Council would even consider this," Graham said. "It is not only ridiculous, it's unsafe.
"Common sense tells us that this would open the door, literally, to all sorts of serious concerns including giving sexual predators access to children. It violates every sense of privacy and decency for people of both sexes, adults and children."
Additional reporting by Reuters.
