Attention, passengers bound for North Carolina: the Human Rights Campaign is now boarding, with a new connection between crucial federal dollars that fund the airports, and the state’s discriminatory anti-LGBT law known as House Bill 2.
The Charlotte Observer is reporting HRC President Chad Griffin wrote a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration last month, claiming H.B. 2’s “discriminatory mandate” that limits the rights of transgender people are a “direct violation” of grant requirements worth millions of dollars. That money helps the state operate and expand its airports, including the major hubs of Charlotte Douglas International and Raleigh-Durham International Airports.
The FAA’s parent agency, the Department of Transportation, issued a statement Tuesday saying it won’t even consider cutting federal funding until that lawsuit and one filed by North Carolina are resolved, according to the Observer.
“We have been coordinating with other agencies and with the Department of Justice to consider a range of policy questions raised by the North Carolina law, including the question of funding,” officials said in the statement. “As this process plays out in the courts, we are not taking action to withhold funding.”
