Here We Go Again: Charlotte Expected to Pass Woke LGBTQ+!* Non-Discrimination Ordinance for Small Employers

CHARLOTTE – The Queen City wants to adopt and enforce LGBTQ non-discrimination ordinances on all businesses , even those with under 15 employees. The policy is eerily familiar to the ordinances that resulted in the infamous House Bill 2 (HB2) and the notorious political controversy it became. In retrospect, HB2 was merely a preview of the Woke Revolution to come.

Now that the window has moved so much, they’re doubling down.

From Queen City Metro:

Charlotte’s smallest employers — those with fewer than 15 people on their payrolls — would not be exempt from discrimination complaints under a new nondiscrimination ordinance (NDO) being hammered out by City Council.

At last night’s meeting, council members debated various aspects of the proposed NDO, which is being designed to extend protections to members of the LGBTQ community.

The proposed ordinance also would protect residents from discrimination based on other factors, such natural hair styles, especially styles associated with people of color.

“Racism, hatred, discrimination in all forms is not in the best interest of any civil society,” Malcolm Graham, who represents City Council District 2, said at the meeting. “I think this ordinance, narrowly tailored, demonstrates that here in Charlotte we want to put reasonable guidelines, reasonable parameters, that impact those type of situations.”

Charlotte isn’t the first one to pass such ordinances recently. After the prohibitions on local ordinances enacted as part of the HB2 replacement law expired at the end of 2020, the doors were open for Leftist city councils to appease trans-activists with new sweeping NDOs to bar discrimination against LGBTQ in things like employment, housing, and, yes, public accommodations like bathrooms.

Durham, Asheville, Chapel Hill, Carboro, Apex and Hillsborough have already adopted similar NDOs. If Charlotte passes this particular expansion to all businesses with 15 or less employees, it means thousands of small-business owners will be pressured to comply with the Woke Dogma of LGBTQ sensitivities, or be sued, fined, and mobbed by a horde of Wokies.

At least one of the council members recognized this, warning against the unintended consequences of making persons of a certain identity effectively “untouchable.” Republican member Ed Driggs said of the move:

“You have to be prepared that any action you take against them, or any failure to promote them or anything else, is going to result in some sort of a protest, legal action or whatever. This is particularly important for these smaller employers because they just don’t have the resources. They don’t have the time to show up at all these hearings, they don’t have the lawyers — they don’t have the ability to defend themselves against these actions […]”

With only 2 (Charlotte-area) Republicans on the city council, the passage of this expanded ordinance is pretty much a foregone conclusion. So, here they go again, forcing business owners comply with the Woke; even if it means letting grown men into women’s bathrooms, it seems.

The cost of non-compliance will be a fine, the amount of which they have not yet determined. And, of course, whatever fees pile up from lawsuits the social justice mob will inevitably target choice businesses with. The council hasn’t even decided if they will allow for religious exemptions.

Yet, this will hardly register as the most egregious Woke development this week, and the General Assembly definitely won’t stick their neck out this time around. What a difference five years makes.

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