So North Carolina’s governor has decided to fight the order from the Justice Department and filed a lawsuit. Sheer and utter crap.
Putting the more serious aspects of the law aside (that being the restrictions placed upon members of the LGBT community when it comes to seeking recourse for discrimination based upon sexual and/or gender identity), my biggest questions on the entire bathroom restriction element of the law are:
- Should everyone be required to carry a copy of their birth certificate in order to prove they are in line with the law when they go to pee? I am completely serious on this. How exactly will law enforcement be able to enforce the law if there is no means of determining if an infraction has occurred? And will parents need to abstain from bringing their children into the bathroom if they are of the incorrect gender? Honestly, if someone wants to be a pain in the ass with this law, there are numerous ways to do so.
- How soon will it be until there is a serious incident when a transgender man uses the women’s bathroom or a transgendered woman uses the men’s bathroom? And what will the resulting litigation look like? HB2 has limited litigation for discrimination, but if there is an incident where discrimination occurred due to an individual following the law it takes on a new slant.
- Can the state government cast residents of North Carolina is any worse light than they already have? Though now that the question has been asked, the answer will inevitably be yes. Sorry.
For a political party who’s rallying cry has been to have a smaller, less invasive government, this seems just a wee bit hypocritical. Not that it surprises me.
Additionally, for a “business friendly” government, this round of shenanigans has cost the state hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars from two companies pulling out from planned expansion into the state. This does not include revenue from cancelled concerts and other entertainment, potential losses from film production opportunities, reduction in tourist spending, etc. etc. etc. Fiscal responsibility must have a different definition down in Raleigh.
Then there is the matter of potentially losing millions of dollars in Federal Education funds. “Think of the children” should no longer be a usable mantra for the Republican party, not that they have fought for education. The loss of Federal funding will just hasten their endeavors to gut the public education system in the state.
Anyway, this is starting to sound more like a rant than a vision.
I have been working on a site concept (it’s not live yet; I’m still working on gathering data, but the domain is therighttobitch.com), but figured I would throw out a few shirt designs in the spirit of that site. I have included the images below, but if you really want a shirt or whatnot, you can get them here.
