North Carolina decided to rush through a bill removing rights from LGBT citizens. It also decided to make sure no cities could adopt anti-discrimination rules and limited the minimum wage, just for good measure.
Say What?
From Ars Technica:
The law in question is known as HB2. In addition to the restroom policy, the measure also blocks lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from enjoying anti-discrimination protections, and it forbids local North Carolina governments from adopting anti-discrimination and living wage rules to counter the state law.
I feel sorry for the citizens of the state who don’t support this measure and who are losing money and jobs because of it.
Official Government Travel Bans
Mayors of Washington DC, Atlanta, Seattle, and Boston have all banned official travel to the state.
New York and Connecticut have banned official travel there as well.
Lost Money and Jobs
Charlotte has also lost 400 skilled jobs when PayPal cancelled expansion plans in light of the new law.
“The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture. As a result, PayPal will not move forward with our planned expansion into Charlotte,” Dan Schulman, the PayPal president and CEO.
Braeburn Pharmaceuticals is pulling their 52 new jobs and #20 million investment int he state.
Fox, Miramax and The Weinstein Company are looking to move or cancel productions in North Carolina. Turner Broadcasting is also threatening to move filming out of the state.
Taking Sides
The Charlotte Observer has a running list of who is For and Against the HB2 law.
There are apparently many more who support the bill but:
Due to vocal threats and bullying from the LGBT community, some business owners feared for the well-being of their business and families. For this reason, some preferred to remain anonymous by name, however, here is a list of timestamped signees with industry indication for those who have signed on, thus far, showing the incredibly large outpouring of support for the passage of HB2 on the North Carolina business community.
From [Facebook page of the North Carolina Values Coalition](North Carolina Values Coalition).
I’m sorry they feel bullied from the same group of people they’re looking to discriminate against. Maybe if they were nicer, they wouldn’t feel so bullied. If you take my rights away, I would be inclined to bully you too.
Bathroom Safety
But now that North Carolina has made restrooms safe for women from transgendered people. Or did they?
[Statistics Show Exactly How Many Times Trans People Have Attacked You in Bathrooms)(http://mic.com/articles/114066/statistics-show-exactly-how-many-times-trans-people-have-attacked-you-in-bathrooms#.mUe6L2Wo2)
Big fat zero: Spokespeople from the Transgender Law Center, the Human Rights Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union told Mic that no statistical evidence of violence exists to warrant this legislation. Vincent Villano, the director of communications for the National Center for Transgender Equality, told Mic in an email that there isn’t any firm data to corroborate these lawmakers’ claims, and that NCTE has “not heard of a single instance of a transgender person harassing a non-transgender person in a public restroom. Those who claim otherwise have no evidence that this is true and use this notion to prey on the public’s stereotypes and fears about transgender people.”
But transgender people face harassment simply trying to heed the call of nature.
I’m glad North Carolina has kept their religious freedom and their bathrooms safe from trans attackers that don’t exist. I hope states who make these laws continue to suffer the backlash of more progressive companies, governments and people. They’re entitled to their views and beliefs. But they’re also entitled to the results of them.
If you’d like to feel even safer, I have a rock that’s guaranteed to keep tigers away.