Payton McGarry at his workplace in McLeansville, N.C.: "You never knew when you'd go into a bathroom and be beaten up. No one should have to go through that."
Payton McGarry, a transgender man, pets a dog at his workplace, Replacements Ltd. in McLeansville, N.C. After House Bill 2 passed, McGarry said, "I felt like everything I had built myself up on as a man had been called into question by the legislature." McGarry is a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging HB 2.
Angela Bridgman, a transgender woman, is shown at her home in Wendell, N.C. Bridgman, 44, moved her small medical billing and transcription business to North Carolina in 2014. But since the passage of the HB2 law, she has taken to carrying her birth certificate that reflects her female gender. "I pay world-class taxes, and for that I get to be a second-class citizen," she says.
Stephen Wiseman, 37, a transgender man who lives with his wife and dog in a neighborhood of ranch homes near the Blue Ridge Parkway, plays banjo at his home in Asheville, N.C. When the General Assembly reconvened for its legislative session last month, Wiseman drove to Raleigh to join those protesting the law, chanting and holding signs outside the Republican House speaker's office.
Joaquin Carcano a resident of Carrboro, N.C., is a 27-year-old transgender man who works for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After HB2 passed, he found himself in a difficult position because there were no single-use restrooms on his floor.
Even before North Carolina's law was enacted, Joaquin Carcano, a transgender man, says he took precautions when traveling to rural areas for work.
Erica Lachowitz, a 40-year-old transgender woman, says she focuses on raising her daughter to have good values, which sometimes means frank conversations about what's on the news: "All she sees on TV is ... 'no men in the women's room.' "
News 
