North Carolina's anti-transgender law is turning out to be even worse than originally thought

On top of legislating transphobia, handcuffing small government and keeping wages low, you can add hurting anti-discrimination lawsuits to the list of awful things North Carolina’s HB2 does.

In addition to the stated premise, preventing the city of Charlotte from enacting an anti-discrimination ordinance for public bathrooms, The News & Observer reports the law prevents fired employees from claiming in state court that they were discriminated against.

The law, which was passed and signed by the Legislature and governor in one day, eliminates “wrongful discharge” from the state’s anti-discrimination law. So if an employee was fired as a result of discrimination for any reason, they no longer file in state court.

Discrimination plaintiffs like Angel Carey, a woman alleging age discrimination by her former employer who was interviewed by local TV station WNCN, are just learning their state cases are over before they even started.

“I’m not a political person,” Carey told WNCN. “I just have a great sense of what’s right and what’s wrong and I feel that that’s not going to happen anymore in North Carolina and it’s sad and it’s disturbing.”

Carey and other plaintiffs still can file federal lawsuits for their discrimination claims, but there are several benefits for a worker seeking redress in the state as opposed to a federal court. The main benefit, according to Employment and Labor Insider is that lawsuits have a three year statue of limitations in the state, as opposed to 180-90 days in federal court.

Even without those differences, saying wrongfully terminated people have no place in your state courts is not a great look for a state.