House Bill 2, commonly known as the bathroom bill, has gotten North Carolina into even more hot water. The bill carries much more than telling transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their “biological sex.” HB2 also carries parts that ban local governments from raising the minimum wage; it also bans discrimination lawsuits in state court. For these reasons, multiple corporations, like Deutsche Bank, Paypal and Bruce Springsteen, have canceled plans for expansion and performances. There are states also applying economic pressure as well.
According to USA Today, states like Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington have banned employee travel to the state of North Carolina. Cities that are also prohibiting employee travel to North Carolina include Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Portland, Oregon; Washington D.C. and San Francisco.
On Sept. 14, the ACC joined the coalition. That morning they released a statement saying that they were pulling all of their neutral site games, including championship games for women’s soccer, football, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, women’s basketball, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s golf, men’s golf and baseball.
This story is hilariously ridiculous on so many levels. Gov. Pat McCrory’s response did not do much to zap the almost comedic level of commitment to discrimination.
McCrory released a response saying: “I strongly encourage all public and private institutions to both respect and allow our nation’s judicial system to proceed without economic threats or political retaliation toward the 22 states that are currently challenging government overreach. Sadly, the NCAA, a multi-billion dollar, tax-exempt monopoly, failed to show this respect at the expense of our student athletes and hard-working men and women.”
Well congratulations, Mr. McCrory, you earned every economic loss that has come your way. All three facets of the bill make it clear that McCrory and the legislature do not care about those without power.
To defend the bathroom regulations of HB2, the writers and supporters have concocted a myth of transgender people invading bathrooms to assault innocent bystanders. Trying to fight this non-problem further ostracizes the transgender community and does nothing to protect anybody’s safety.
Then on top of this, blocking discrimination lawsuits from being filed in state court is shocking. It is not shocking that McCrory would approve the law but rather that this provision is even legal. This part of HB2 effectively gives the executive branch the ability to judge discrimination cases, rather than the judiciary. Instead of being able to file a case in a court, a defendant has to go through the red tape of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Instead of coming up with harsher laws to punish those who discriminate against people, he, in essence, attempts to get them off the hook.
As if the first two parts did not do a good enough job of asserting dominance over the weak, HB2 has disallowed cities to raise minimum wage. How detrimental would it be for a city to decide on raising the minimum wage? North Carolina is already a state that features very lax labor laws which make workers vulnerable. Republicans are appealing to their voter base by denying these poor workers this slight glimmer of hope. Good job McCrory, you have really done some excellent work with your avid support of this fine piece of legislature.
The ACC has done a wonderful thing by displaying its support for equality. Kudos to all who were involved in pulling the trigger on this decision. This was the type of definitive stand that sends a clear message that will be remembered for a very long time. We need more of this type of outrage.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think any business or athletic conference should be trigger happy with boycotts. However, if it is clear that this method gets results, why not champion more causes? This can be said to be a great win for the LGBT community, but they have laid a foundation for how major business entities and large corporations can influence change. Then again, corporations probably already know this and they are probably just apathetic toward many other inequities.
