The Charlotte bathroom issue is just the type of distraction Republicans in North Carolina were looking for. It’s an emotional issue that has very little bearing on people’s lives but it gives the GOP a chance to grandstand and beat up on a segment of the population without much political clout. It’s also an opportunity for them to show off their Big Government credentials once again.
I didn’t even want to weigh in on this whole overblown stink. However, like the tax increase on the working class families that went into effect last week. The leaders of the party that claims to want less government is calling a statewide commission to investigate an ordinance put in place by a city council. Talk about hypocrites.
I’m not sure why the policy came up in the first place. People who identify as a gender and live that way are probably using the bathroom of their choice already. I haven’t ever seen anyone lurking in bathrooms and opening stall doors to check people’s plumbing. Most people go to the bathroom, get their business done, and leave. Anybody just hanging around in a bathroom is probably up to no good regardless of whether they are transgender or not.
Now, though, Phil Berger is equating transgender people with child molesters. Not too many years ago, he probably thought gay were people were, too. Maybe he still does. Regardless, it’s pathetically ignorant and mean-spirited and it’s a sentiment that has dangerous and ugly roots.
That same misguided logic was used to keep segregation in place by demonizing African-American men. Racists claimed that the government needed to protect white women from the sexual proclivities of Black men. And if the government failed, well, lynch mobs would step in to make sure that Black people knew their place.
Berger and Moore are playing cynical politics. They’re firing up their base using a local issue that divides instead of unites. They’re bashing an already powerless minority and casting them as monsters. It’s ugly and mean-spirited. There’s no shred of evidence to show that transgender people are more likely to be pedophiles.
If they’re so concerned about people in rest rooms, maybe Phil Berger and Tim Moore should hire a bunch of bathroom monitors—but we all know who would apply for those jobs, don’t we?
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Will someone explain something for me? I know I got my education about girls and boys on the playground of my parochial, elementary school in the 1930’s, but I must have missed some important data about anatomy. (Why am I even thinking and writing about this?)
The GOP leaders in our state legislature are now agonizing about public potties. They are so laser focused on such a critical Charlotte problem that they will spend $40,000 a day of our taxes to argue and inflame North Carolina voters about this nonsense. Sad.
Now, ponder with me, these vital questions:
What if a woman, who thinks and believes she is a man, goes into a men’s public restroom–how does she/he use the wall urinals?
Or, equally serious, what does a man, who thinks and acts like a woman, do when he walks into a ladies’ restroom and there are no wall urinals? To the best of my limited knowledge about women’s public rest rooms, there are only individual stalls with doors that lock.. (This column is giving me a headache.)
And, why do we assume that all transgender folk (just men mostly) are predators?
But, the most important question is:
Why are Republican legislative leaders so fascinated and interested in passing laws that intrude into our personal, private, behavior in our bedrooms, doctor’s offices, voting booths, and, now, public restrooms? What happened to the Republican’s small government movement; to bring local governments closer to the people; their Libertarian, personal freedom movement; and just letting us alone?
Do you smell the scent of hypocrisy in the air, again?
Don’t you, too, get a headache when our politicians make us think about this stuff?
Vote, and send them a message.
If it’s such a non-issue, it makes it even more bizarre that the city council would even wade into it. It is also a gift to Republicans, whose response was predictable and not all that irrational. It is one thing to say gay people won’t be discriminated against in jobs or housing, but a lot of people don’t think it’s okay to send their nine-year-old daughter into a bathroom with a man who “identifies” with being a woman. Working people have to wonder why their city council members are catering to what may be one-tenth of one percent of the population rather than focusing on important issues like safe streets, good utilities, education, and economic development. It’s further proof of the alienation of many people from the political elites who claim to know best. The Republicans in the legislature are doing significant damage to this state and Democrats on the city council in Charlotte want to ensure that transgender people can use a bathroom of their choice? It boggles the mind.
I understand your point, and confess to feeling a few moments of frustration as I realized the potential political outcry agaomst the City Council’s decision. But I also know that discrimination and bigotry against even a few is simply not compatible with good government, not to mention a fair society. The issue for me is not whether the City Council should be spending time on this issue, but why those who oppose it are willing to lie and degrade others, and spend my tax money on efforts to legislatively undo those who seek to eliminate discrimination and bigotry. I believe that the hostile reaction in Raleigh is less about the “bathroom” issue, and far more about the ongoing efforts to end discrimination toward the LGBT community. I also think the City Council is spending a lot of time on other issues, including safety, education, economic development, etc. Frankly, none of those can be fixed by passing a single piece of legislation.