Charlotte mayor says city won't compromise on LGBT law

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina mayor says her city will not compromise on its equality law allowing transgender people to use the restroom of the gender with which they identify.

The Charlotte Observer reports (http://bit.ly/1XmWhuP) that Mayor Jennifer Roberts told the city's most influential LGBT supporters Wednesday the city council will not back off its equal rights ordinance.

The Charlotte ordinance prompted North Carolina lawmakers to approve legislation requiring people in government buildings to use bathrooms that match the sex on their birth certificates.

The state law has been widely criticized. Top legislative leaders are reported to have met privately with Roberts about defusing the national backlash against the law.

Legislative leaders have suggested that if Charlotte repealed its nondiscrimination ordinance, the General Assembly might change the much-criticized state law.

“When people talk about compromising on equality, I think how? Do you make them half equal? It doesn’t work with math, and it doesn’t work with people. Equality is equality,” Roberts said regarding the attempt to compromise.

“We stood up and proved we support equality and inclusion. Regardless of how or what has come out of it, regardless of how the politics play out, Charlotte will continue to promote and support and display for the world to see our values of equality and inclusion. … That is not negotiable.”

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Sara Ritsch contributed to this report.

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The Gayly – May 12, 2016 @ 9:50 a.m.