City leaders in Charlotte, North
Carolina on Monday unanimously approved an LGBT protections
ordinance.
Passage comes roughly five years after
the state blocked the city's ordinance with House Bill 2.
Council expanded Charlotte's
nondiscrimination ordinance, commonly referred to as an NDO, to
include gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and
natural hairstyles.
According to The
Charlotte Observer, the city's NDO does not address public
bathroom regulations.
Charlotte's passage of an NDO in 2016
stirred controversy and fueled passage of House Bill 2, North
Carolina's so-called “bathroom bill,” which prohibited
transgender individuals from using the bathroom of their choice.
A national outcry against HB2 pressured
Republican lawmakers to partially repeal the measure. Towns and
cities in North Carolina have been free to adopt their own NDOs since
December.