North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory wants us to believe Anti-discrimination law is “common sense”
Over the holiday weekend, North Carolina’s soon to be one-term governor Pat McCrory released a detailed rebuttal argument to several major media outlets entitled “Myths vs. Facts: What the New York Times, Huffington Post and other media outlets aren’t saying about common sense privacy law.” For those not familiar with this law, NC General Assembly kicked progress in the teeth on March 23 when they speedily passed House Bill 2, a law banning LGBT non-discrimination protections and barring transgender people from using gender-affirming bathrooms.
The backlash has been swift and severe from politicians, the NFL, the NCAA, Apple, Google, PayPal and many, many others. It’s no surprise that Gov. McCrory would feel the need to douse the rapidly growing flames of this trashcan fire of a situation he created by signing this bill into law only minutes after it was passed. Unfortunately for him, he managed to pour gasoline onto the fire rather than putting it out by using patronizing language and a lack of transparency in the over-all tone of the document. Maybe the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Lawsuit that was filed this morning will knock some sense into him.
There are close to 20 points on Gov. McCrory’s list but rather than breaking down each one, let’s just focus on a few of the more ridiculous claims:
“Does this bill take away existing protections for individuals in North Carolina?
Answer: No. In fact, for the first time in state history, this law establishes a statewide anti-discrimination policy in North Carolina which is tougher than the federal government’s. This also means that the law in North Carolina is not different when you go city to city.”
This is not only false, it’s about as close to a bold-faced lie a politician can make and not go to jail. This law actually overturned non-discrimination protections for LGBT people in eight major cities in North Carolina. Essentially, he’s saying as long as you’re not what polite society considers to be a freak, you’re protected by this new law. How is that not discrimination?
“Can businesses and private facilities still offer reasonable accommodations for transgender people, like single occupancy bathrooms for instance?
Answer: Yes. This bill allows and does nothing to prevent businesses, and public or private facilities from providing single use bathrooms.”
While this is a true statement, he omits the real problem with this statement and that is that LGBT people in the public are not protected and no action will be taken against a private business that does discriminate.
“Does this bill mean transgender people will always have to use the restroom of the sex of their birth, even if they have undergone a sex change?
Answer: No. This law simply says people must use the bathroom of the sex listed on their birth certificate. Anyone who has undergone a sex change can change their sex on their birth certificate.”
So, to clarify, if you can prove you have had sex reassignment surgery, and jumped through all the legal hoops of fire to have your birth certificate changed to reflect your preferred sex and have that document with you while you’re out in public to prove you are indeed the sex you claim to be, THEN you can use public restrooms.
Maybe we should pass a law stating that anyone seeking to be elected to a public office should provide documented proof of being an actual human being, with a beating heart, and not some vacuous windbag who’s completely disconnected from the world he lives in?
Gov. McCrory’s attempt to calm the fear and outrage regarding this law would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic. He’s alienated a significant number of registered voters and refuses to see the “why” behind the outrage. There is a reason why so many people are speaking out about this issue and his pathetic explanation of the bill isn’t helping his cause or his re-election campaign.
#WeAreNotThis
Featured image from Instinct.
