Our story begins in Charlotte, North Carolina where an ordinance was released on Feb. 22 that basically outlawed discrimination against the LGBT community. Not directly stating so, it did imply that those that identified as male or female could use the restrooms in accordance with their gender identity. The “Charlotte Ordinance,” as it’s called, was set to go into effect April 1.

Fast forward to March 23, when the North Carolina legislature passed House Bill 2 (H.B.2) in response to the Charlotte Ordinance. H.B.2 clearly states a few things: who could use what bathrooms in schools, who could use what bathrooms in public agencies and provisions to prevent discrimination on the basis of “race, religion, color, national origin, or biological sex.”

Key here: biological sex. From this point on, the debate stems around biological sex versus gender identity. Not a pretty debate.

H.B.2 was ratified on March 23 and was intended to take effect as soon as Governor Pat McCroy signed it into law. Upon its immediate effective date, it outlawed local governments in North Carolina to adopt ordinances that attempt to regulate the subject matter. This means that the “Charlotte Ordinance” could not go into effect.

Now, here is where people begin to take sides.

While North Carolina had reasonable intentions, the public saw discrimination against the LGBT, particularly the transgender community. Hence, the major backlash from businesses and countless canceled concerts.

Not only were concerts canceled and business speaking out against this law, mayors of cities had their own opinions as well.

In comes the travel bans. Towards the end of March, the mayors of New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and most recently Baltimore all banned publicly funded travel to North Carolina for reasons of discrimination against the LGBT community. Specifically, San-Francisco Mayor Ed Lee also banned travel to Mississippi.

I forgot to mention: Mississippi passed House Bill 1523 to protect strongly held religious beliefs from being called discrimination against the LGBT community. While it had hardly anything to do with bathrooms, it still received just as much backlash, if not more for ensuring that religious beliefs get protected under the law. Separation of church and state at its finest.

Enter Target, whose new bathroom policy triggered mixed responses. On April 19, Target released a statement that welcomed transgendered individuals to use the restrooms that coincided with their gender identity. While Target has always held inclusion as a priority, remember, Target is a big company with a heart of inclusion.

This brings us to Washington, D.C. or “Capitol Hill” for the fun in this article. Attorney General Loretta Lynch warns McCroy that H.B.2 was violating federal civil rights laws. McCroy decided to sue the government. Therefore, the government decided to sue North Carolina.

Now we have reached everything that happened up to this point. Since this will not be the last that we hear of this, be on the lookout for the next chapter in this story.

Is the bathroom the issue or is it discrimination?