For one, it prevents North Carolina cities and counties from setting higher minimum wages than the one set by the state. HB2 also nullifies any local laws that grant protections to classes not specifically protected by North Carolina law as defined by the bill. The bill states that North Carolinians are protected from discrimination on the basis of their race, color, religion, national origin, and biological sex as indicated on his or her birth certificate in public accommodations, and extends to protection based on age and handicap for employment.
Notably absent from that list is sexual orientation and gender identity, meaning that localities are now prevented from expanding accommodation and employment protections to gay and transgender citizens beyond the state standard. For example, once existing ordinances in Greensboro and Raleigh that required contractors wishing to do work for their respective governments to have policies against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity are now invalidated. And, just to prove that the General Assembly is serious, citizens are no longer allowed to sue for employment discrimination in state court (claims must instead be filed in federal court, which is a much more arduous process).
The provision that has garnered the most attention, however, is the one that dictates that North Carolinians only use public restrooms that correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificates. This is directly aimed at the transgender community, which wishes to use public restrooms based on their gender identity. HB2 was voted on and signed into law in an emergency session to preempt a local ordinance passed by the Charlotte City Council, which would have banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in public accommodations.
***
A few basic points:
For one, HB2 violates the supposedly critical conservative principle of local control. Or, the belief that local government is the best government, as it's most likely to be responsive to the desires of the citizens it impacts most. For residents of Charlotte, it doesn't get any more local than their city council, which chose to enact the anti-discrimination ordinance that started this kerfuffle. If Charlotte voters didn't like it, then they could have made their feelings known by replacing the Council Members that voted for said ordinance in the next election. Instead, the North Carolina state government is telling residents of Charlotte what's good for them by overriding their locally passed laws.
This isn't an argument in favor of or against local government; it's merely pointing out that conservatives will happily overlook their preference for local control in favor of moral grandstanding.
In addition to this, HB2 actually increases the likelihood of the one thing its proponents are supposedly trying to prevent: men walking into the women's restroom. The law requires residents to use public accommodations intended for the sex corresponding to their birth certificates. Since changing the sex listed on your birth certificate can vary in difficulty depending upon the state you were born in, and doing so isn't exactly at the top of the priority list, there's a lot of transgender men who are now, technically speaking, legally obligated to use the women's restroom.
A number of viral images highlighting the absurdity of this are now floating around the Internet:
The problem is that so many Republican legislators are completely deluded into thinking that the transgender community is made up of bearded men wearing dresses that they're utterly unaware of what actual transgender men and women look like. Take conservative "satirist" Dan Joseph, for example, who interviewed students regarding a California law that allows them to use accommodations that fit with their gender identity in this video:
He seems to think he's making some kind of point, because his portrayal of a transgender woman is based on a nonexistent caricature, as Media Matter's Carlos Maza notes:
Granted, most transgender men and women will simply ignore the law and continue to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. After all, enforcing it would require nothing short of guards at every public restroom demanding to see birth certificates. But there is something more sinister behind the timing of the law, and the rhetoric of its defenders.
Proponents of HB2 and other similar state laws are singularly focused on the possibility of men taking advantage of policies that allow people to use accommodations that correspond to their gender identity so that they may take a peek at women in various states of undress, or even sexually assault them. "If the law says that any man, if he chooses, can enter a women's restroom, a little girls' restroom, and he cannot be removed because he simply says at that moment he feels like a woman, you're opening the door for predators," noted Texas Senator and former presidential candidate Ted Cruz.
The federal Justice Department filed a lawsuit against North Carolina on May 9th, stating that HB2 violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In response to this, North Carolina Lt. Governor Dan Forest issued the following statement: "To use our children and their educational futures as pawns to advance an agenda that will ultimately open those same children up to exploitation at the hands of sexual predators is by far, the sickest example of the depths the Obama Administration will stoop to 'fundamentally transform our nation.'" Meanwhile, the comments section on virtually every online article about this is filled with people who seem to believe that women's restrooms are now open season for perverted men. Presumably some of these commentators are amongst the thousands of people who have signed an online pledge stating that they will boycott the retail giant Target, which recently reiterated its trans-friendly restroom policies.
Ted Cruz and his ilk, however, are full of shit.
A coalition of advocacy groups for sexual assault and domestic violence victims released the best mic drop statement I've yet seen on the issue this past April, which explains precisely why the sudden bathroom panic is nonsensical:
The notion that such laws will lead to an increase in male predators assaulting women in their bathrooms never made any sense to begin with. What, exactly, is stopping predators now? Bathrooms are not impenetrable fortresses, in which one must wear a disguise to sneak in. Men capable of turning a doorknob could always walk into the women's restroom. And men do, in fact, already walk into the women's restroom for nefarious purposes such as...using the baby change station to swap out their kid's diaper. Likewise, many a woman has used the men's restroom at crowded concert venues, because sometimes the line for the women's is just too goddamn long.
Sexual assault, indecent exposure, and voyeurism are still crimes. Allowing transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity does not magically make these things legal. And again, the empirical evidence demonstrates that transgender inclusive policies do not lead to an increase in such crimes.
Unfortunately, the vast majority, or 82%, of reported sexual assaults are perpetrated by people known to the victim (friend, acquittance, family member, or intimate partner):
It's much easier to imagine a faceless stranger committing a heinous crime than a loved one, which is why concern over strangers sexually assaulting women and girls in bathrooms and locker rooms is seemingly more widespread. Yet that concern is misplaced, based on the statistics. Furthermore, if this were actually about preventing sexual assault, then it would seem that energy would be more wisely invested in passing legislation designed to keep convicted sex offenders away from public accommodations, as opposed to singling out the transgender community. Indeed, if we take the social conservatives' argument to it's logical conclusion on this one, then we should also ban grown men from using the same public accommodations as young boys, as sexual predators are overwhelming male, and they molest boys as well.
But this isn't about preventing sexual assault; LGBT people are actually at greater risk of being the victims of violence than the general population, as far as that goes. Instead, we're left with the undeniable conclusion that the latest round of "bathroom panic" is a convenient smokescreen for social conservatives to demonize the transgender community, which they evidently hold in even lower regard than homosexuals. The reason they drone on and on about men walking into women's restrooms is because they don't accept the premise that transgender men are actually men (or that transgender women are actually women). Since this premise is the cornerstone of the transgender rights movement, both sides are simply talking past one another, rendering it impossible to find common ground on the issue of public accommodations, let alone resolve it.
When conservatives do acknowledge the existence of transgender people, however, they have a tendency of portraying them as mentally ill. For example, here's the American College of Pediatrician's (ACP) position statement on transgender children:
Language and verbiage matters, of course, as the way transgender people are treated in society ties into "the clinically significant distress associated with the condition." It's not difficult to find online comments on transgender articles dripping with contempt, in which they're referred to as freaks and degenerates. The rhetoric takes a toll; some empirical research suggests that as many as 40% have attempted suicide. That number perhaps shouldn't come as a surprise; as Brynn Tannehill of the Huffington Post writes, "what happens when you rape, beat, fire, evict, reject, isolate, demonize, and humiliate a class people on a daily basis? What happens when all of this is done by people in the name of God? Would you expect a group of people experiencing this to thrive? Or would you expect 40% of them to try to find escape in oblivion?" Similarly, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has concluded broader acceptance from society at large can reduce the risk of suicide:
Hopefully, this rash of legislative action is the final desperate act of a conservative movement in its dying throes. The rhetoric levied at transgender people is eerily similar to the rhetoric levied at gays and lesbians, and we all know how that fight turned out. As the transgender community slowly gains broader acceptance, I suspect our elected officials will calm down on the bathroom nonsense. In the meantime, we'll have to tolerate fuckheads like former Arkansas governor and 2-time-presidential-candidate-failure Mike Huckabee, who once said “I wish somebody had told me when I was in high school...that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in P.E. I’m pretty sure I would’ve found my feminine side and said, ‘Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today.'”
As Carlos Maza of Media Matters writes in the article I linked to earlier, right wing pundits "have to claim that they personally would be the ones who pretend to be transgender to sneak into women's facilities," as "there are no real world examples to support their horror story. They have to become the horror story in order to prove its credibility," since the vast majority of men "just aren't that interested in dressing like women, identifying as women, and presenting themselves as women over a long period of time just to sneak a peek into a women's locker room."
In effect, Mike Huckabee is projecting his own moral failings on other men by assuming that we're just as creepy as he is. For what it's worth, I'm much rather share a bathroom or locker room with members of the transgender community than the likes of Huckabee or Ted Cruz.
***
A few basic points:
For one, HB2 violates the supposedly critical conservative principle of local control. Or, the belief that local government is the best government, as it's most likely to be responsive to the desires of the citizens it impacts most. For residents of Charlotte, it doesn't get any more local than their city council, which chose to enact the anti-discrimination ordinance that started this kerfuffle. If Charlotte voters didn't like it, then they could have made their feelings known by replacing the Council Members that voted for said ordinance in the next election. Instead, the North Carolina state government is telling residents of Charlotte what's good for them by overriding their locally passed laws.
This isn't an argument in favor of or against local government; it's merely pointing out that conservatives will happily overlook their preference for local control in favor of moral grandstanding.
In addition to this, HB2 actually increases the likelihood of the one thing its proponents are supposedly trying to prevent: men walking into the women's restroom. The law requires residents to use public accommodations intended for the sex corresponding to their birth certificates. Since changing the sex listed on your birth certificate can vary in difficulty depending upon the state you were born in, and doing so isn't exactly at the top of the priority list, there's a lot of transgender men who are now, technically speaking, legally obligated to use the women's restroom.
A number of viral images highlighting the absurdity of this are now floating around the Internet:
The problem is that so many Republican legislators are completely deluded into thinking that the transgender community is made up of bearded men wearing dresses that they're utterly unaware of what actual transgender men and women look like. Take conservative "satirist" Dan Joseph, for example, who interviewed students regarding a California law that allows them to use accommodations that fit with their gender identity in this video:
He seems to think he's making some kind of point, because his portrayal of a transgender woman is based on a nonexistent caricature, as Media Matter's Carlos Maza notes:
"Other than attempting to feminize his voice, Joseph doesn't present himself in any way as a female in the clip. He is wearing men's clothing, has a full goatee, and goes by his male name, "Dan."His impersonation is a perfect example of everything that's wrong with how conservative media imagine transgender people.
As such, we get bills that, as written, mean that transgender men with beards and muscles have to use the women's restroom if they wish to remain in compliance with North Carolina state law.Unlike Joseph's character, most people who are actually transgender make efforts to present and appear in a way that matches their gender identity. Transgender women don't typically walk around in men's clothing will full faces of facial hair. They don't typically refer to themselves as "a transgender." And they certainly don't stand outside of women's restrooms announcing themselves and asking passerbys for permission to "go in there... and change and shower and stuff.""
Granted, most transgender men and women will simply ignore the law and continue to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. After all, enforcing it would require nothing short of guards at every public restroom demanding to see birth certificates. But there is something more sinister behind the timing of the law, and the rhetoric of its defenders.
Proponents of HB2 and other similar state laws are singularly focused on the possibility of men taking advantage of policies that allow people to use accommodations that correspond to their gender identity so that they may take a peek at women in various states of undress, or even sexually assault them. "If the law says that any man, if he chooses, can enter a women's restroom, a little girls' restroom, and he cannot be removed because he simply says at that moment he feels like a woman, you're opening the door for predators," noted Texas Senator and former presidential candidate Ted Cruz.
The federal Justice Department filed a lawsuit against North Carolina on May 9th, stating that HB2 violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In response to this, North Carolina Lt. Governor Dan Forest issued the following statement: "To use our children and their educational futures as pawns to advance an agenda that will ultimately open those same children up to exploitation at the hands of sexual predators is by far, the sickest example of the depths the Obama Administration will stoop to 'fundamentally transform our nation.'" Meanwhile, the comments section on virtually every online article about this is filled with people who seem to believe that women's restrooms are now open season for perverted men. Presumably some of these commentators are amongst the thousands of people who have signed an online pledge stating that they will boycott the retail giant Target, which recently reiterated its trans-friendly restroom policies.
Ted Cruz and his ilk, however, are full of shit.
A coalition of advocacy groups for sexual assault and domestic violence victims released the best mic drop statement I've yet seen on the issue this past April, which explains precisely why the sudden bathroom panic is nonsensical:
"States across the country have introduced harmful legislation or initiatives that seek to repeal non-discrimination protections or restrict transgender people’s access to gender- specific facilities like restrooms. Those who are pushing these proposals have claimed that these proposals are necessary for public safety and to prevent sexual violence against women and children. As rape crisis centers, shelters, and other service providers who work each and every day to meet the needs of all survivors and reduce sexual assault and domestic violence throughout society, we speak from experience and expertise when we state that these claims are false.
As the statement indicates, anti-discrimination laws are already on the books in many different places, but they haven't seen any notable increase in sexual violence. Indeed, the law that Dan Joseph was ranting about in the video posted earlier has been in effect for nearly 3 years now, and California has not descended into chaos. As such, the claim that anti-discrimation laws "open the door" for predators is not rooted in empirical fact.Nondiscrimination laws protecting transgender people have existed for a long time. Over 200 municipalities and 18 states have nondiscrimination laws protecting transgender people’s access to facilities consistent with the gender they live every day. In some cases, these protections have been in place for decades. These laws have protected people from discrimination without creating harm. None of those jurisdictions have seen a rise in sexual violence or other public safety issues due to nondiscrimination laws. Assaulting another person in a restroom or changing room remains against the law in every single state. We operate and advocate for rape crisis centers and shelters all over the country, including in cities and states with non-discrimination protections for transgender people. Those protections have not weakened public safety or criminal laws, nor have they compromised their enforcement."
The notion that such laws will lead to an increase in male predators assaulting women in their bathrooms never made any sense to begin with. What, exactly, is stopping predators now? Bathrooms are not impenetrable fortresses, in which one must wear a disguise to sneak in. Men capable of turning a doorknob could always walk into the women's restroom. And men do, in fact, already walk into the women's restroom for nefarious purposes such as...using the baby change station to swap out their kid's diaper. Likewise, many a woman has used the men's restroom at crowded concert venues, because sometimes the line for the women's is just too goddamn long.
Sexual assault, indecent exposure, and voyeurism are still crimes. Allowing transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity does not magically make these things legal. And again, the empirical evidence demonstrates that transgender inclusive policies do not lead to an increase in such crimes.
Unfortunately, the vast majority, or 82%, of reported sexual assaults are perpetrated by people known to the victim (friend, acquittance, family member, or intimate partner):
It's much easier to imagine a faceless stranger committing a heinous crime than a loved one, which is why concern over strangers sexually assaulting women and girls in bathrooms and locker rooms is seemingly more widespread. Yet that concern is misplaced, based on the statistics. Furthermore, if this were actually about preventing sexual assault, then it would seem that energy would be more wisely invested in passing legislation designed to keep convicted sex offenders away from public accommodations, as opposed to singling out the transgender community. Indeed, if we take the social conservatives' argument to it's logical conclusion on this one, then we should also ban grown men from using the same public accommodations as young boys, as sexual predators are overwhelming male, and they molest boys as well.
But this isn't about preventing sexual assault; LGBT people are actually at greater risk of being the victims of violence than the general population, as far as that goes. Instead, we're left with the undeniable conclusion that the latest round of "bathroom panic" is a convenient smokescreen for social conservatives to demonize the transgender community, which they evidently hold in even lower regard than homosexuals. The reason they drone on and on about men walking into women's restrooms is because they don't accept the premise that transgender men are actually men (or that transgender women are actually women). Since this premise is the cornerstone of the transgender rights movement, both sides are simply talking past one another, rendering it impossible to find common ground on the issue of public accommodations, let alone resolve it.
When conservatives do acknowledge the existence of transgender people, however, they have a tendency of portraying them as mentally ill. For example, here's the American College of Pediatrician's (ACP) position statement on transgender children:
"A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such. These children suffer from gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria (GD), formerly listed as Gender Identity Disorder (GID), is a recognized mental disorder in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-V). The psychodynamic and social learning theories of GD/GID have never been disproved."The ACP is a designated hate group masquerading as a medical group, per the Southern Poverty Law Center, and is attempting to deceive people by using a name similar to the American Academy of Pediatrics, a legitimately credible medical organization. Furthermore, they're wrong regarding the DSM-V; the American Psychiatric Association instead states that "gender nonconformity is not in itself a mental disorder," and that the "critical element of gender dysphoria is the presence of clinically significant distress associated with the condition."
Language and verbiage matters, of course, as the way transgender people are treated in society ties into "the clinically significant distress associated with the condition." It's not difficult to find online comments on transgender articles dripping with contempt, in which they're referred to as freaks and degenerates. The rhetoric takes a toll; some empirical research suggests that as many as 40% have attempted suicide. That number perhaps shouldn't come as a surprise; as Brynn Tannehill of the Huffington Post writes, "what happens when you rape, beat, fire, evict, reject, isolate, demonize, and humiliate a class people on a daily basis? What happens when all of this is done by people in the name of God? Would you expect a group of people experiencing this to thrive? Or would you expect 40% of them to try to find escape in oblivion?" Similarly, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has concluded broader acceptance from society at large can reduce the risk of suicide:
“Suicidal behaviors in LGBT populations appear to be related to “minority stress,” which stems from the cultural and social prejudice attached to minority sexual orientation and gender identity. This stress includes individual experiences of prejudice or discrimination, such as family rejection, harassment, bullying, violence, and victimization. Increasingly recognized as an aspect of minority stress is “institutional discrimination” resulting from laws and public policies that create inequities or omit LGBT people from benefits and protections afforded others. Individual and institutional discrimination have been found to be associated with social isolation, low self-esteem, negative sexual/gender identity, and depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders. These negative outcomes, rather than minority sexual orientation or gender identity per se, appear to be the key risk factors for LGBT suicidal ideation and behavior.”Note that "institutional discrimination" is recognized "as an aspect of minority stress," which brings us back to North Carolina's HB2, and other similar state laws. For all the complaining from conservatives over transgender people "shoving their lifestyle down our throats," it is actually state legislatures that are taking affirmative action against them in 2016, as tracked by the Human Rights Campaign:
***
As Carlos Maza of Media Matters writes in the article I linked to earlier, right wing pundits "have to claim that they personally would be the ones who pretend to be transgender to sneak into women's facilities," as "there are no real world examples to support their horror story. They have to become the horror story in order to prove its credibility," since the vast majority of men "just aren't that interested in dressing like women, identifying as women, and presenting themselves as women over a long period of time just to sneak a peek into a women's locker room."
In effect, Mike Huckabee is projecting his own moral failings on other men by assuming that we're just as creepy as he is. For what it's worth, I'm much rather share a bathroom or locker room with members of the transgender community than the likes of Huckabee or Ted Cruz.
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