North Carolina legislators have passed a bill that prevents local governments from regulating anti-discrimination. The Republican-controlled General Assembly took action Wednesday in a special session after the Charlotte City Council recently approved a broad anti-discrimination measure.
That measure allowed transgender people to use the restroom aligned with their gender identity.
The Senate voted for the new bill hours after the House passed it by a wide margin.
Governor Pat McCrory signed the bill late Wednesday night.
The bill is a blow to the LGBT movement after success with similar anti-discrimination measures in more than 200 cities nationwide.
Democrats in the North Carolina Senate walked out rather than debate the legislation. Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue said Democrats were shut out of shaping statewide legislation he called a farce. He accused Republicans of calling Wednesday's special session under the pretext that emergency action was needed to stop the Charlotte ordinance before it took effect.
Blue says the state could have gotten a judge to block the ordinance until lawmakers assemble for their regularly scheduled annual session next month.
Eleven Democrats walked out before the Senate voted 32-0.
Senate leader Phil Berger says the walkout was unprecedented in his 15 years in office. He says Democrats breached their obligations to voters.
Gay-rights leaders and civil liberties groups are planning to fight the measure.
“What we're seeing here is a more extreme version of the radical ‘Right to Discriminate' laws that have failed in other states like Indiana. Rather than requiring a ‘religious objection' to discriminate, which is already bad enough, this wholesale repeal of all municipal non-discrimination laws in the entire state is a new low. This proposed bill gives businesses, like hotels and restaurants, a license to discriminate against gay and transgender people with total impunity. And that is simply wrong,” said Ryan Butler, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party's LGBT Caucus.
The national Human Rights Campaign, state chapter of American Civil Liberties Union and Equality North Carolina was organizing a rally Thursday at a Raleigh church.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.