Whether the new package of HB2 “amendments“ goes is still in question. In contrast to their normally robust rhetoric, GOP leaders have been tepid and subdued when discussing the proposals. It could be one of those ideas that arise to great fanfare, then drop like a lead balloon.
Let’s hope so.
The content of these amendments ranges from insufficient to actively troubling. It restores the right to file discrimination suits in state court: Congratulations, we’d become like 48 other states. By merely importing federal standards, it maintains the possibility that anti-LGBTQ discrimination will remain legal. The provisions on sex-crime punishments–while facially unobjectionable– in fact further the narrative that trans people are predators. It sends an insulting message and leaves the narrative in the NC Values Coaltion’s hands. Those reforms should be in an independent bill explicitly detached from the HB2 debate.
That a “fix” developed by GOP legislators is inadequate should come as no surprise. After all, these are the people who have engineered some of the worst anti-LGBTQ legislation in US history. They simply cannot be trusted to improve things. For that reason alone, LGBTQ rights advocates of all stripes (pun not intended but perhaps appropriate) should reject every Republican-drafted compromise and insist on Rep. Darren Jackson’s repeal bill. Homophobes don’t get to drive the train.
And it all comes down to this. There are some things you just do not compromise on. As long as the so-called “Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act” remains active, the civil law of our state is soiled. Cleaning up a few nooks and crannies of HB2 will never suffice. Repeal is the only option.
Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.
HB2 will never be repealed because the one thing the party of denial is consistent about is , no matter how wrong you are on something you never ever admit that you are wrong. they all follow the Tough boss stance of even when the boss is wrong he is right ….
The only way to get HB2 repealed will be to flip the state from red to full blue in November. If they resort to the state constitutional amendment trick to lock HB2 into place, that would mean that they think that they might loose the majority that they have. because of gerrymandering it will be a tough uphill fight anyway. I hear that KochCo is getting into the fray in November trying to keep the state red.
It is a shame that those who risk their lives to defend our freedoms are not allowed to share the freedoms .
what are the implications for enforcement of HB2 now that the military has opted for an inclusive policy? will military trans be allowed to use airport or other public facilities in NC as practiced by military regs?
A couple of years NCGOP gave us “motorcylevagina;” Pat McCrory gave protesters cookies, and now the state Republicans give us an unfunded need to establish the NC potty police.
PLEASE ALL OF US – remember in November.
NBA is certainly not happy with the revisions…
Looks like Charlotte will lose the NBA All Star game. Threatened extortion is not an effective political strategy in this day and age. Maybe the Charlotte City Council will realize that appeasement of LGBT militants comes with a high cost.
LOL.
Go ahead. Blame Charlotte. And further prove just how out of touch you are.
Surprised you didn’t just go whole-hog and blame Obama.
“assuage” (verb): to console, relieve, satisfy, or mollify.
“impel” (verb): to incite; to drive or urge forward; to propel.
HB2 is all part of the NCGOP assuaging the religious right and family values groups in its base, after those groups struck out badly with the anti-same-sex marriage constitutional amendment. It’s also about impelling those same groups toward re-invigorated action.
Just sayin’……
I don’t think we should be too worried about all those lost PayPal and Apple jobs. There will be a huge demand for bathroom monitors. Think of it. Since you can no longer tell if a person is in the right bathroom just by looking at them, everyone will have to show their birth certificate now to use a public toilet, so every place that has bathrooms will have to hire an army of Potty Police. I can’t wait. I wonder if we get uniforms. Maybe even handcuffs.
All the bathroom police… wasn’t it just a decade or so ago when to be a Republican meant that you were firmly against unfunded mandates? Have we seen the budget where the bathroom police are funded? And who gets to pay?
I’m seriously thinking of refusing to pay a portion of my state taxes if this is what they’re being spent on. I’ll be damned if I’m going to carry documentation in order to pee while I’m at the mall; and requiring transgender people to do so is a violation of their human rights. Where exactly did “innocent until proven guilty” fall out of the NC law books (not to mention that one’s gender is not, and never has been, a crime)? What about people who haven’t had gender-assignment surgery but may not be 100% obvious re their gender? Are we going to force all women to wear frilly dresses and men–I don’t even know what men would have to wear to prove they’re the “proper” gender to go to the mall–3-piece suits? overalls and hard hats? If Republicans in the GA had more than a couple of functioning brain cells among them, they would be able to see that this is the stupidest law passed in our state’s existence and go ahead and repeal the damned thing.
And lest you think I have no experience re this issue: a few months ago, I went into a restroom at a local public library and saw a large, short-haired, casually dressed (jeans/T-shirt) person at the sinks, whom I initially took for a man. I am notoriously absent-minded, and my first reaction was that I’d gone into the men’s room by mistake. Apparently the person at the sink saw my surprised look in the mirror: she turned around–at which point I recognized she was female–and said, “I know I look like a man, but I’m a woman.” I didn’t demand to see her ID: on the contrary, I was embarrassed that she’d seen my reaction and felt she had to explain herself to me, a complete (and obviously either unobservant, near-sighted or deranged) stranger. I don’t think requiring transgender people to whip out a document to prove their right to pee into the “appropriate” toilet would have made this incident less embarrassing for either of us. For God’s sake, North Carolina has real problems, and every minute spent on this ridiculous debate is a minute ignoring genuinely important issues–of which a person’s choice of where to pee when away from home is not one.
“I don’t even know what men would have to wear to prove they’re the ‘proper’ gender to go to the mall–3-piece suits? overalls and hard hats?”
Overalls and hard hats will be one option. Other options will be dressing like a cowboy, a cop, a soldier, a biker, or a Native American.
You have me singing along with the Village People!
But on a more serious note, I cannot believe the idiocy of those in Raleigh these days. Every move is even more stunningly awful than the last. Franklin Graham’s censorship advocate is now on the state Board of Ed, no matter that his wife runs a Christian home-schooling organization. Why protect the Constitution when you can censor the reading list of Watauga County HS honors English students?
This legislature really needs to be put under psychiatric observation to prevent self-harm! For some reason, the image of an idiot happily smashing an ice cream cone into their forehead popped to mind this morning when reading about their latest round of shameful nuttiness.
It is not appropriate to respond to homophobia/transphobia with able-ist insults. Suicide “jokes” are particularly uncalled for given the tragically high rate of suicide within the trans community.
I am just as outraged over the singling out of those with differences as you seem to be. My point is that this legislature is making more of a mockery of themselves every day they try to undo the harm they’ve done to the state, to the LBGTQIA(etc) community, and to every single one of us who wants the nightmare they’ve brought to this state to stop asap. Of course, you want to wail away on me, so now I’m being singled out by you because of my abilities, which you do not know as you do not know me. Work on your next column and try to make this state a better place. I know I am.
This legislature really needs to be put under psychiatric observation to prevent self-harm! For some reason, this ’60s image popped to mind this morning when reading about their latest round of shameful nuttiness:
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2009/11/02/arts/02punchatz_CA0/articleLarge.jpg
Wow! Now I am curious about the contents. Anyway, thanks for the laugh. Not much of that today relative to the Raleigh shenanigans.
Totally agree!
The NCGOP’s apparent unwillingness to repeal or substantively change the law’s bathroom use provision just goes to show that HB2 was only about pandering to the far/religious right regarding a person’s sexuality.
And so hundreds of millions of dollars in business activity and tax revenues are being sacrificed because of a backward stance on a social matter by politicians that tediously preach the importance of getting government out of the way of business growth, success, and profitability. Can’t make this stuff up…….