The NBA’s decision to pull the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte was a blow to both basketball fans and local businesses. This turn of events seems particularly bitter for the city of Charlotte, whose anti-discrimination law triggered the creation of HB2. The economic consequences of these events have been significant throughout the state. In addition to the flight of several national and multinational businesses, smaller local companies have also suffered from the bad press, and yet our state government continues to steadfastly defend the law.
In a stunning display of incompetence and skewed priorities, Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration recently diverted disaster relief funds to the General Assembly’s legal fees in lawsuits brought against them. Although Republicans in the General Assembly have almost perfected the art of stealing libertarian and populist talking points, the text of the law and the timeline of subsequent events reveals that they’re really not looking to protect anyone’s liberties except their big business donors.
Despite having thrown LGBT North Carolinians a bone last year by vetoing a religious beliefs exemption bill, McCrory seems hell-bent on defending this train wreck of a law, which raises questions about his motives. Never one to stand firmly on his or anyone else’s principles, the governor’s sudden attack of traditional values and deep concern for the nonexistent victims of transgender bathroom assault everywhere seem out of place for such a bland, center-right corporatist. The impassioned condemnation of state representative and Equality NC Executive Director Chris Sgro for the loss of the All-Star game, for example, is more likely a distraction from other parts of this law — the ones that just might torpedo McCrory’s bid for reelection in the fall.
The “bathroom” provision, while reprehensible and certainly deserving of the condemnation it has garnered so far, is really the Trojan horse that secured the support of social conservatives for a bill that overwhelmingly works against the interests of middle and working class North Carolinians of all backgrounds. Although many of the local alternative publications have made note of the law’s nullification of existing and future municipal living wage laws, and its free pass to employers and institutions discriminating on the basis of disability and veteran status, these troubling provisions have largely escaped the scrutiny of the mainstream media.
Not only does HB2 put the working class, veterans, the disabled and transgender people at a disadvantage, it prevents local governments from implementing stricter anti-discrimination ordinances for their citizens. In its original form, HB2 eliminated citizens’ ability to sue in state court in the event of discrimination — the General Assembly recently amended it to provide a year to sue in state court. But state preemption efforts like this one are nothing new, as communities around the state saw with the secret passage of SB 119, which included a provision that prevents local governments from banning fracking within their own limits.
Despite the growing number of preemptive laws passed in last-minute emergency sessions, McCrory and his supporters in the General Assembly still manage to pass themselves off as small-government, pro-business conservatives looking out for average North Carolinians. Their actions, however, reveal a willingness to support discriminatory and regressive policies in order to relieve big businesses of the regulatory burden of paying workers a living wage, or respecting those with military service records and disabilities.
To any rational person with even a vague understanding of state politics, HB2 is an example of a series of policies that are almost antithetical to the rhetoric we consistently hear from McCrory, policies that will ultimately hurt their socially conservative base that likely includes members of the groups this law targets.
The coming November election, however, presents an opportunity to take back our state government from the special interests that it serves so obediently. The intense publicity that HB2 has attracted has at least partly exposed our governor and legislators for what they are — desperate cowards in service of corporate interests with their eyes on the next election cycle. Let’s show the governor and others like him that crony capitalism is a losing game.
