Nearly seven years after North Carolina repealed the “bathroom bill” that led to national headlines and economic boycotts, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is bringing back the issue of bathroom requirements for transgender people.
In campaign speeches in recent weeks, Robinson suggested that people who previously identified as male should be “arrested” if they go in a women’s bathroom. Instead, he suggests they should “find a corner outside somewhere” to relieve themselves.
“We're going to defend women in this state,” he said, according to a video of his campaign stop in Cary earlier this month. “That means if you're a man on Friday night, and all the sudden on Saturday, you feel like a woman, and you want to go in the women's bathroom in the mall, you will be arrested — or whatever we got to do to you.” see him bring this up time after time after time ... I think this is not the last time we’re going to hear Mark Robinson bring up issues around transgender bathrooms or transgender rights, and what he views as the wrong path for the state.” Robinson made a similar comment in a Greenville speech, adding that “if you are confused, find a corner outside somewhere to go. We're not tearing society down because of this.”
A spokesman for Robinson’s campaign declined to comment when WUNC sent questions seeking clarification on Robinson’s stance on bathroom regulations. He did not answer questions about whether the lieutenant governor wants to reinstate legislation similar to House Bill 2.
Known as the “bathroom bill,” that law was passed in 2016 in response to a new nondiscrimination ordinance in Charlotte. Among other things, the bill required people to use bathrooms in public facilities that match the gender on their birth certificate.
HB2 was criticized as discriminatory toward the LGBTQ+ community, and it prompted some companies to boycott North Carolina. The NCAA temporarily banned the state from hosting college sports championships.
The law was mostly repealed in 2017 in a compromise between Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican legislators; it's been fully repealed since 2020 when a remaining provision of the law expired. Since then, bathrooms haven’t been discussed much even as the GOP pursues other transgender-related restrictions. Last year, the legislature banned gender-affirming healthcare for transgender people under age 18 and banned transgender athletes from playing on teams that match their gender identity.
“The bathroom issue, most Republicans have avoided” since 2017, said Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University. “Mark Robinson is clearly not most Republicans, and so I would expect to
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