Pete Kaliner is the host of a daily radio talk show on Asheville’s WWNC (570-AM) that airs from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. This column features posts from his daily blog.

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The following was posted on April 18:

So much for “fact checking.”

PolitiFact is out with its latest HB2-related fact check against (North Carolina) Gov. Pat McCrory. It examined this statement McCrory made on “Meet The Press:” 

“The city of Charlotte passed a bathroom ordinance mandate on every private-sector employer in Charlotte, N.C.”

PolitiFact rates this as “mostly false” because:

The ordinance would have applied to place of public accommodation, like hotels and stores and other places selling goods and services to the public. While that is a big category, the ordinance would not have applied to private clubs, nonprofits or organizations with viewpoints that would have been at odds with the law, nor would have it really impacted business that don’t deal with customers. 

The talking point contains an element of truth but exaggerates the scope of the law. We rate his statement Mostly False.

However, PolitiFact ignores a key part of the law that Charlotte City Council removed.

All of this section was repealed:

 Sec. 12-59. - Prohibited sex discrimination. 

(a) It shall be unlawful to deny a person, because of sex, the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of a restaurant, hotel, or motel.

(b) This section shall not apply to the following:

(1) Restrooms, shower rooms, bathhouses and similar facilities which are in their nature distinctly private.

(2) YMCA, YWCA and similar types of dormitory lodging facilities.

(3) A private club or other establishment not, in fact, open to the public.

(Code 1985, § 12-39)

All three exemptions were repealed. And, by doing so, the law WOULD apply to all of these facilities.

Charlotte attorney and N.C. Representative Dan Bishop, R-Mecklenburg, noted the obvious implications:

If “gender identity” and “gender expression” mean that a transgender must be allowed to use the bathroom and shower of choice, then “sex” means that ALL men must be permitted to use women’s facilities and vice versa. The city attorney says that’s not what was intended, but it is what the language says.

Charlotte City Attorney Bob Hagemann, dismisses these concerns:

Bishop, a lawyer, said the way the city changed the wording of an existing ordinance made it illegal to have separate bathrooms, locker rooms or even showers for men and women.

“In other words,” Bishop said in a statement, “just as it would be illegal for a business to discriminate by saying ‘whites only,’ it is now illegal within Charlotte city limits to have ‘male only’ or ‘female only’ bathrooms, showers, etc.”

Not quite, City Attorney Bob Hagemann said.

In a memo to Mayor Jennifer Roberts and council members, Hagemann said Bishop’s argument runs “counter to common sense” as well as interpretations of similar statutes.

“It was not the city’s intent to eliminate gender-specific facilities,” Hagemann wrote.

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Hagemann said the city will bring no enforcement actions against public accommodations with separate bathrooms.

By noting it wasn’t council’s intent to eliminate sex-segregated facilities and promising that the city won’t bring enforcement action, Hagemann is, essentially, admitting that the law does exactly what Rep. Bishop said it does.