North Carolina’s General Assembly voted Wednesday to block cities and counties from passing protections against LGBT discrimination in a wide-ranging bill that could have enormous implications for the state. HB 2, which passed in a special session, would set a statewide anti-discrimination policy, banning employers and businesses from discriminating against employees or customers based on their race, color, country of origin, religion, age or “biological sex.” The bill offers no protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and prevents local governments from passing any nondiscrimination policy that goes beyond the statewide standard. The bill also pre-empts local employment ordinances governing wages, benefits, employee protections and leave policies. It would prevent schools from allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify. The measure passed 83-25 in the House of Representatives, and 32-0 in the state Senate. (Senate Democrats walked out of the chamber before the vote.)
Ah, Republicans- those principled scions of “small government” and the belief that “government works best when it governs least”…unless you’re LGBT, female, non-Christian, or anything but White, Conservative, and Christian. Republicans, if they were true to their stated beliefs, are all about liberty and freedom- the idea that government should stay off the backs of Americans- ALL Americans. Then again, Conservative culture warriors have no problem with defining “small government” as “small enough to intrude into the private lives of those who have the temerity to not march in lockstep with those of us who pray to the One, True, and Only God and have sex only in the missionary position with their opposite-gender spouse.”
Republicans in the North Carolina Legislature are among some of the worst when it comes to talking the talk about protecting liberty and freedom while trampling on the rights of those not fortunate to be like them. If you’d tried to roll back 50 years of work towards creating a society based on non-discrimination, it would be difficult to imagine a piece of legislation that would do it more thoroughly and effectively than HB 2.
Tell me again why Republicans don’t view some human beings as “less than” and thus unworthy of the same rights and protections that accrue to Conservative White Christians?
Not only does HB 2 ban municipalities from enacting protections for LGBT individuals, it removes non-discrimination protections for veterans, sets standards for single-sex bathrooms, and- as if it wasn’t already regressive enough- bans cities and counties from raising the minimum wage. In other words, Republicans plan to legislate the right to discriminate against anyone who lives outside the box, even a little bit.
Violence by trans people in bathrooms is non-existent. Violence towards trans people everywhere is commonplace. https://t.co/WDv9G70ahZ
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) March 24, 2016
I signed bipartisan legislation to stop the breach of basic privacy and etiquette, ensure privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms.
— Pat McCrory (@PatMcCroryNC) March 24, 2016
Sure, Republicans are people- mean-spirited, nasty, corrupt, reprehensible people devoid of even the barest shred of human decency and compassion.
Congratulations, North Carolina; you have exactly the quality of inept, discriminatory, venal leadership you deserve. Nice work.
(UPDATE: Gov. Pat McCrory has signed the bill into law. North Carolinians should be ashamed; they elected the bigots who made this all possible.)
