Entrenched bigotry: Republican lawmakers who oppose LGBT deal want lawsuit over

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina's Republican legislative leaders want a judge to throw out a lawsuit that focuses on the latest version of the state's "bathroom bill." But dismissing it their way would also dissolve a proposed deal pushed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to let transgender people use many public restrooms that correspond to their gender identity.

Cooper and the plaintiffs in the lawsuit — LGBT citizens and civil rights groups — asked U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder last week to approve a settlement that would end the litigation. But the agreement also would make it clear that transgender people can use restrooms aligned with the gender they identify with in state government buildings that agencies in Cooper's administration control, such as most state office buildings, highway rest stops and state museums, parks and historic sites.

But House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, who worked out a compromise with Cooper last spring on House Bill 2 and are defendants like Cooper, oppose the consent decree and wrote Monday they intend to file a motion to that effect.

Meanwhile, they told Schroeder on Monday in a brief that the lawsuit against the replacement law known as House Bill 142 should be thrown out because the plaintiffs haven't shown they've been injured by the new law.

Read more: http://www.wral.com/republican-legislators-opposing-lgbt-deal-want-lawsuit-over/17041379/