The “bathroom predator” talking point is a huge lie used to justify anti-LGBT laws. @gaywonk explains: https://t.co/xqPeg3vBbZ
— Media Matters (@mmfa) April 12, 2016
Thus far Gov. Pat McCrory (R), who signed the legislation on March 23, has dismissed the backlash to the law as “political correctness gone amuck.”
Even as the backlash against North Carolina’s recently-enacted anti-transgender law continues to grow, supporters appear to be digging in their heels. By portraying the bill as merely a principled effort to protect the sanctity of public restrooms from the scourge of sexual predators (And NO ONE loves perverts, amiright?), North Carolina culture warriors have staked their claim to the moral high ground. Gov. Pat McCrory seems somewhat nonplussed over the negativity and outrage, passing it off as just so much excessive “political correctness.”
I’d certainly agree there are instances when PC gets taken to ridiculous lengths…but this is not one of those times. What North Carolina’s good, God-fearing, Conservative culture warriors have done is a (not even) barely camouflaged attempt to legislate a minority class into second-class status. By denying transgender individuals the (basic human) right to use a public restroom corresponding to the gender they identify with, they’re telling a class of people that they’re “less than.”
It’s not about political correctness. It’s about respect. It’s about Republican hypocrisy and devotion to “small government”…which evidently should be taken to mean “government just small enough to get all up in everyone’s business.”
Gov. McCrory claims with no hint of irony that the new bill is about protecting the sanctity of the Tarheel State’s public restrooms, thus protecting children from the threat of sexual predators. This argument might make sense…if there was a demonstrated, documented risk posed by transgender individuals using restrooms corresponding to the gender they identify with. The truth is that there’s no identifiable risk- except in the overheated imaginations of Republican culture warriors who can’t be bothered to understand the struggles of those who identify as transgender. It’s a real thing, and the fact that it isn’t mentioned in the Bible (and I ALWAYS look to a 2000+-year-old book for guidance on modern life issues) doesn’t make it any less real.
Then again, if North Carolina’s Republicans were so worried about protecting their precious snowflakes from sexual predators, why haven’t they passed legislation against the documented clear and present danger posed by Catholic priests? Why haven’t they addressed that most modern of threats to children posed by sexual predators on the Internet? Perhaps it really isn’t about sexual predators after all. Perhaps it’s just about ensuring that the “T” in “LGBT” can’t and won’t be legally defined as anything but second-class citizens.
EXACTLY what Jesus would do, don’tchathink?s
