San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee (D) is barring public funding for city employees’ travel to North Carolina in protest of the state’s new law prohibiting localities from passing legislation to protect LGBT rights…. “We are standing united as San Franciscans to condemn North Carolina’s new discriminatory law that turns back the clock on protecting the rights of all Americans including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals,” Lee said in a Friday statement announcing the ban. The mayor specified, however, that there would be an exception for travel that is “absolutely essential to public health and safety.”…. The North Carolina legislature passed a law on Wednesday that prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, country of origin, age or “biological sex,” but deliberately excludes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. It also barred municipalities in the state from passing their own laws against LGBT discrimination. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) promoted the law in part by stoking fears that laws against transgender discrimination would effectively allow men to prey on women in the bathroom.
It’s been said that evil can only triumph when good people do nothing. In the case of North Carolina’s latest legal travesty, it seems clear that the forces of- if not evil, then something closely approximating it- have triumphed in the short term. Gov. McCrory may claim that it’s about protecting the “sanctity” and/or “safety” of public restrooms. Truthfully, no one believes it’s about bathrooms. The purpose of the new law is to marginalize transgender individuals and dictate which bathroom and locker facilities they’re legally able to use. To claim it’s about protecting children from “predators” is about as disingenuous and mean-spirited as it gets.
If this seems as if it runs counter to the generalized Conservative desire for “small government,” rest assured they recognize no inconsistency on their part. The Conservative working definition of “small government” is “small enough to allow us to get up in everyone’ business.”
It’s not about freedom and liberty, another canard Conservatives sell the American Sheeple as being among their core values. It’s not even about Christianity; nowhere in the Bible is there to be found any mention of who may appropriately use which gender’s public restroom.
Mayor Lee’s stance is important, given that he represents what many perceive to be the gayest city in the country. San Francisco is also one of the largest and most influential cities in America. As other government bodies and business pick up on the momentum behind the outrage, it should send the loud and clear message that they won’t tolerate trafficking in hatred an bigotry.
Evil can only triumph when good people look the other way and do nothing. I suspect that once Gov. McCrory and the moral midgets in the Legislature who voted for HB2 are confronted with the economic impact facing North Carolina, they’ll do the right thing. Or not, and they can stand by and watch as the Tar Heel State withers on the vine. That ought to play well when they run for re-election, eh?
