Earlier this year, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed the state’s controversial House Bill 2, also known as the “The Bathroom Bill.” This law denies transgender persons the right to use the restrooms and other facilities that match their gender identity.
The law also maintains that no individual city can provide protections to any specific class of citizens that are greater than the protections that the state provides. Since the law was passed, many major businesses have withdrawn expansion plans that were previously in place for the state.
In addition, many sports leagues, musicians and conferences have pulled their events from the state due to the controversial law.
The Institute for Southern Studies reports that North Carolina has already lost well over $230 million in revenue in direct result of enacting the law.
After the law was enacted, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch sent notice to North Carolina that the new law violated both the Civil Rights Act and Title XI and threatened to put a hold on federal funding to the state if the law was not repealed.
McCrory, in return, sued the federal government to keep the law in place. The Department of Justice filed a counter claim seeking to ban the enforcement of the law as it was “impermissibly discriminatory.”
“This action is about a great deal more than just bathrooms,” Lynch said. “This is about the dignity and respect we accord our fellow citizens and the laws that we, as a people and as a country, have enacted to protect them — indeed, to protect all of us.”
According to NPR, on Sept. 19, Pat McCrory dropped the lawsuit against the federal government on the grounds that it was too expensive to the state. The state legislature had already pulled $500,000 from the state’s disaster relief fund to hire attorneys to present the case.
North Carolina faces another lawsuit over the bill brought by Joaquin Carcaño and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The entire issue of House Bill 2 started when Charlotte passed an anti-discrimination statue that would prevent discrimination against LGBT persons in the city.
And the GOP-controlled legislature responded, “Equality? Not on my watch.”
The party that claims to be for small government and personal freedoms seems to forget these beliefs when it comes to protecting minorities (whether racial or sexual) in this country.
House Bill 2, at its core, is a hate bill.
It serves no purpose that can be deemed “good” on any moral scale. It only serves to impose the beliefs of the dominant class on those who do not conform to the binary system.
Dropping his federal lawsuit was not enough. Governor McCrory should immediately call an emergency meeting of the North Carolina legislature and demand that House Bill 2 be repealed.
