As one music group and business after another announce that they will be avoiding North Carolina after that state adopted its new law, ostensibly aimed at restricting the bathrooms transsexuals can use to only the ones that correspond to the gender assigned to them on their birth certificates but in fact allows wider discrimination against the LGBT community and others, Stephen Colbert wonders why we can’t get along the way that Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee did after the bitter civil War.
Meanwhile, the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a Virginia high school bathroom policy similar to the North Carolina law, so that law may have a short shelf life since the Fourth Circuit’s jurisdiction covers North Carolina too, as well as Maryland, South Carolina, and West Virginia.
Marcus Ranum says
They probably hated Lincoln extra because not only did he take their slaves away, he may have been gay.
thebookofdave says
The NC law goes much farther than regulating access to bathrooms. It includes a raft of discrimination protections, minimum wage restrictions, and roadblocks to county and municipality authority to pass laws mitigating the damage. No single court ruling will overturn it. It’s going to have to be dismantled piecemeal.
johnson catman says
Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger:
It is obvious that Berger is only listening to the people that hold the same bigoted views as he does. He totally disregards the rest of the population that disagrees with him. He was elected to represent ALL of the citizens of the state, not just the ones that voted for him. I just hope a sizable portion of those republicans get tossed out in the November election.
Randall Lee says
One reason we can’t all get along is the fact that there are those who are so militant in the promotion of their LGBT agenda that they will stoop to committing fraud in order to gain attention, reap personal financial benefits, and promote their agenda. In their Machiavellian mindset their goal seem to justify their means.
The Washington Posts reports:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/r.html?C=J360DOUZMC6A&R=1JIFA82RLYP1R&T=C&U=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fnews%2Fmorning-mix%2Fwp%2F2016%2F04%2F20%2Fwhole-foods-countersues-gay-pastor-saying-he-faked-homophobic-slur-on-cake-it-sold-him%2F%3Fwpisrc%3Dnl_az_most&A=BVLFO0BVMNSVPABJAIFIWE8DGBQA&H=OHCTRSANX4IXWVHA05V24IGGNE0A
Robert,+not+Bob says
@Marcus, it gets even worse. He was likely an atheist, too.
@Randall Lee, that story was greeted with universal skepticism, from what I saw. Obviously, you’re using this one dishonest person to demonstrate that a society-wide movement is composed of dishonest people, and I say your evidence is insufficient to support the claim. (This is the politest response you’re going to get, I think.)