A dozen NC State students protested House Bill 2 Friday in front of a bathroom on the third floor of Talley Student Union. This event was a sit-in, one of many protests organized by students across North Carolina universities in response to HB2, which was signed into law on March 23.
Students across the UNC System chose central, highly trafficked bathrooms to show their solidarity with the transgender community and bring attention to their opposition of HB2. News stations and papers from across the state covered the event, such as ABC 11 and WNCN.
Leah Block, a freshman studying business administration who participated in the sit-in, said protests can accomplish many important advancements for this issue, such as starting a conversation and providing visibility for the LGBT community.
“Sit-ins are great for creating momentum, so if other [schools] see that we’re doing this, it will be more likely for them to join the movement and mobilize,” Block said. “I think a lot of people have this idea of how queer and trans-identified people look like and what they are … Sit-ins are a great way to show the general public we’re just as much a part of society as straight and [cisgender] people.”
Meredith Biechele, a sophomore studying mechanical engineering who also participated in the event, is hopeful the protests will motivate administrators to take action.
“The administrators’ job is to work for the university and work for the interest of the university, and by extension that’s the student’s,” Biechele said. “If enough students show their discontent and express how harmful HB2 is, hopefully the administrators will act in our best interest.”
The sit-in was held in a bathroom across from the Talley Ballroom. Outside the bathroom, a university event welcomed incoming students and their families to NC State.
A concerned mother participating in the welcome event voiced her support for the law, disagreeing with the protesters. She said the bill is nondiscriminatory and expressed that she saw the bill as a solution to a safety concern. HB2 protects women and children, according to the woman.
One of the student organizers of the sit-in, Chloe Holland, a sophomore studying animal science, dislikes the way this law discriminates against her friends and loved ones and said that efforts will continue until changes are made.
“I don’t think that people realize that it’s not doing any good, that it’s only harming people,” Holland said. “It was passed because people are scared of what they don’t know, and they’re just using a facade of protecting people to cover up their fear.”
On Tuesday, UNC System President Margaret Spellings sent out a memo to UNC System chancellors, directing them to comply with HB2. However, Spellings told reporters that her memo is not an endorsement of the law. Students at the sit-in expressed disdain toward the memo, and many of them wished for Spellings to be decisive in her statements.
Similar protests have occurred at Appalachian State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Wilmington and other North Carolina universities. According to Holland, more sit-ins and protests will take place in the future.
HB2 risks $4.5 billion in federal education funding, under Title IX, which could have effects across the state, according to Holland. Title IX was written in 1972 and requires educational institutions to not discriminate between their students based on gender. However, recent discussion in the federal government suggests that it may extend to transgender students.
It is yet to be seen whether North Carolina’s Title IX funding will be affected because of HB2.
