The Republicans are flailing about to promote their regressive social agenda, and they’re succeeding, at least temporarily. While we’re all distracted by the spectacle of presidential elections, they’ve managed to control legislatures and governorships in many states, and that means they get to push through all kinds of ugly laws.
So North Carolina has passed a ‘bathroom law’, which seems to be the new strategy for getting public approval of odious legislation. They’re making sure men don’t get to sneak into women’s restrooms, how can you disagree with that? Well, I can, but appealing to modesty and privacy works as a great stalking horse when what you’re really about is oppressing minorities. The NC bill isn’t just about regulating bathrooms.
McCrory’s statement and tweets tonight only mention the so-called “bathroom issue” – but in fact the bill excludes LGBT citizens from protections in housing, employment, and public accommodations. The bill also overturns not only the LGBT rights bill in Charlotte, it repeals similar laws in eight other North Carolina municipalities.
McCrory also keeps emphasizing that it is a “bipartisan” bill. There were a few Democrats who voted for it initially, but how can you call it bipartisan when every Democrat in the senate walked out on the vote in protest? It seems to me that that is kind of the opposite of bipartisan support.
So not only are they passing oppressive legislation, they are constantly lying about it. Business as usual for the Republicans, I guess.
Remember this next fall. The election isn’t just about the highest office in the land, it’s also about the entire poisonous nest of scumbags at every level of government. Vote the Republicans out. Don’t even let a professed Republican be elected to dogcatcher.
A nice twist on the North Carolina law: see this manly bearded fellow? He’s a transgender man. He’s now required by law to use women’s restrooms in North Carolina.
It’s going to be spectacular, what with all the conservative crania exploding, when someone tries to prevent him from entering the room the law says he must use.
I’m sure there are also transgender women who are going to blow everyone’s mind when they use the men’s room. The proponents are all thinking about enforcing strict gender norms, and they’ve just taken an action that is going to make all the people who don’t fit in their narrow little boxes more prominent.
And how long before such asshattery gets slapped down in court?
I would argue that it doesn’t even matter much whether Clinton or Sanders win. Even the worst of them is bound to be immeasurably better than any of the GOPpers.
@2 Bart
Oh, yes, it does matter. They may both be immesurably better than any republican candidate, but they are not identical amongst themselves.
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I sometimes get the impression that one of the many horrible reasons why these kinds of laws are pushed and passed is that as well as spitefully depriving human beings of their dignity and all that, it gives the bigots a chance to identify trans* people that might otherwise not raise their suspitions. and have a chance of going about their lives without constantly feeling like a target…
reminds me of the all too common cliche of a man hitting on a woman to the point of intimacy and finding out, to his shock, that she is a “he”. The fact that he was originally enamored, but is horrified by some “dangley bits”, makes me horrified of him, not her.
It seems the NC rethuglicans are locked in this mode, of horror at “deception”. Not realizing that the tran thinks that they are being more honest than going cis.
Jesus Christ. I’ve long thought South Dakota was the absolute worst when it came to legislation like this, but the SD governor pulled a “I’m a thinking person” on everyone, and vetoed their bathroom discrimination bill. Congrats NC, you’re now officially the worst.
Bonus asshattery! In addition to (1) the bathroom provisions, the bill
(2) nullifies any antidiscrimination ordinance clauses regarding gay or transgender people, and
(3) just for extra economic shitting on the peasants’ heads, forbids any city in North Carolina from passing a minimum wage higher than the state minimum.
Turns out cities often elect Democrats, which a good GOP legislature can’t be having. Paeans to “local control” only count when they’re insisting on creationism in school curricula or letting people carry guns more, not fewer, places.
The GOP called this reactionary emergency session on such short notice that anyone not previously aware the session would be called didn’t even get a chance to read the bill. This isn’t the first time they have pulled that shit on the Dems, nor the second. We’re a purple state, voter-wise, so if they didn’t spring shitty bills last minute and redraw districts in their favor the GOP might actually have to fucking work for a living.
This bill eliminates all current LGBT protective measures– measures which have passed in several municipalities across the state, mine included. It doesn’t just (as if that would be bad enough) legislate away the right of trans people to pee, but also protections in housing, employment, et al. Apparently small government means “the state gets to decide that individual counties or city councils cannot protect their residents the way they see fit.” This bill deliberately eliminates the existing LGBT safe zones within the state, and makes enacting any protections illegal.
I haven’t been able to find what penalties are proposed for when (not if) municipalities refuse to comply with this bigotry.
Vote the Republicans out.
We tried. We keep trying. It just doesn’t seem to get us anywhere.
typo correction: (as if that wouldn’t be bad enough
Looks like the Bundys found another place to leave a shit filled trench…
Onamission5 @#7:
Does NC have any kind of citizen referendum? It seems that that is what is necessary to create a non-partisan congressional districting system. You just can’t ever get politicians to vote against their own selfish interests, Republican or Democrat.
@moarscienceplz #10:
There is not. Currently districts are drawn by legislature in post-census years AFAIK. There is a measure proposed which would create an independent commission following the 2030 census, but even should that pass we’re stuck with the current situation for the next 14 years.
slithey tove @4, cab you kindly take your transphobic tropes about deceptive “he” pretending to be “she”, and shove them somewhere uncomfortable, preferably stuffed with Lego? Kthxbye. Can’t have a thread without someone dropping that shit in.
FFS.
Not only are the NC republican legislators raging bigots, they are hypocritical shits as well. The state legislature has, in the past, complained bitterly when the US legislature has passed laws requiring action by the states. They whined about having their control wrested from them, yet they have done exactly the same thing to the local governments, like Charlotte, that passed laws that they did not like. And yes, those of us in the state with progressive attitudes keep trying to vote them out. The gerrymandered districts have a lot to do with why they are still in power, but there are still a lot of bigoted supporters of these bastards.
I assume the next step is that a handsome and extremely brave young man like the one pictured will pee in the women’s room in the capitol and get arrested for it, setting up the obvious lawsuit. A few long years later, SCOTUS will rule that you can’t ban the public from using public restrooms, and said young man will be a revered hero among those of us who think SJW is a mark of honour.
Too bad the peoples’ representatives couldn’t short-circuit the bullshit and just leave the laws alone, because I wouldn’t wish heroism upon anyone.
I’m so prescient (or jaded): the next story I read links to this statement by the ACLU: https://acluofnorthcarolina.org/blog/pro-equality-groups-considering-legal-challenge-to-north-carolina-s-sweeping-anti-lgbt-law.html
A friend told me yesterday that last weekend, she heard a woman at the gym loudly complaining that there was a trans woman in the locker room and was insisting that she (although she was calling her a he) use the men’s locker room.
She then confronted my friend to “warn” her. My friend was rather shocked and didn’t say anything to her.
I told my friend that I would have had plenty to say. I would have told her that I wasn’t bothered by this at all, and would defend the trans woman’s right to use the locker room in which she felt most comfortable and safe.
I’m not normally there on weekends, but I would love to meet the trans woman. I would be happy to let her know that she has an ally there.
I apologize, sincerely
Tell me again why toilets and locker rooms are segregated?
And why Americans are so hung up about nudity and bodies?
magistramarla @ 16
Yeah, that’s what we’re going to see more and more of now that governors and major party platforms are selling the idea that trans people are invaders and threats. More people feeling entitled to attack gender non-conforming people they see as trans and more entitled to demand their removal from public spaces and to “warn” others about the threat.
It’s about making our public existence “controversial” so that we’re discouraged and scared off from going out and going to gyms, attending schools as ourselves, or going on long trips where we might have to use a restroom. And beyond that, to increase the amount of times we are turned down for employment because “they need to protect the safety of fellow employees” and so on. Making a trans person who is a parent or who works with kids into an automatic suspect.
Making trans existence a point of acceptable fear so that we bunker down and hide and duck out of sight quick before things get violent and we’re too scared to publicly come out or call out transphobic shit in society.
And trusting the silence of the majority to make it all socially acceptable to be that big of a flaming asshole.