One week ago, North Carolina convened a dramatic Special Session of the General Assembly for one specific purpose: to pass a statewide bill overturning an non-discrimination ordinance in Charlotte.
The Charlotte ordinance had the audacity to add gay, lesbian, or transgender customers to the list of people businesses can’t discriminate against.. And (gasp!) allow transgender people to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender with which they identify.
And it was this provision that caused all the Straight White Men in NC to go apeshit. Why, we here men have to protect our delicate womenfolk! No cross-dressing pervert with a pecker can be allowed to barge into the sanctum of the Ladies Room! My poor defenseless wife might see a extra-marital penis! My pure and virginal daughter might just lose her innocence and have the retinas burned from her eyes!
There will be rape! Sexual assault! And for once we won’t be able to blame the victim for it!
Never Fear, Gentle Womenfolk. The Men Are Here To Protect You From…. Well, Other Men That Aren’t So Gentlemanly.
As much as I am bothered by the fact that it is now illegal to protect the LGBT community from discrimination in NC – and don’t get me wrong, that’s my primary beef – I’m also really incensed at the way the Conservatives are framing this one. It’s in all the comments, its in all the Mansplaining the politicians do. Such as this one in response to the inevitable lawsuits filed against the new law:
“This lawsuit takes this debate out of the hands of voters and instead attempts to argue with a straight face that there is a previously undiscovered ‘right’ in the U.S. Constitution for men to use women’s bathrooms and locker rooms – but we are confident the court will find the General Assembly acted properly in accordance with existing state and federal law.” -Joint statement from Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore
And that’s the sole issue – at least the one everyone is hanging their hat on. So as angry as I am for my friends in the LGBT community, I’m personally offended by this bill as well. As a woman I’m damn angry at the insinuation – the outright insistence – that I’m so weak and helpless that peeing with a transgender person in the next stall will traumatize me or endanger me in some way.
This Is A Problem That doesn’t Exist
Currently, over 200 cities have ordinances similar to the one Charlotte passed, allowing transgender people to use the bathroom with which they identify. To date, there have been exactly ZERO problems, sexual assaults, mayhem, dogs and cats living together, or other catastrophes of biblical proportions. NONE.
But there might be, so we must Be Vigilant!
It is, however, damaging to the LGBT community, and I hate it for that. That’s the reason I ask you NOT to spend any money in the state of NC if you can possibly help it.
But I also have to point out what this whole debate is doing – or perhaps just pointing out – for the women in NC. We are clearly seen as second class citizens here. The “weaker vessel.” Delicate fragile flowers that must be protected by the big, strong men in the Republican party.
Well I say those men can Fuck Off. And any transgender woman – regardless of the current state of your anatomy or what your birth certificate says or however else they plan to define who can pee where – is more than welcome to come to the Ladies room with me. Because that’s where you belong.
I Ask You To Join The Boycott
As a citizen of NC, I ask that you please join the boycott of this state until this disgusting law is repealed. You won’t be alone:
Dozens of businesses have publicly denounced the bill. The NCAA is hinting that it might not host championship events in North Carolina anymore. The NBA suggested it might move the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte. The mayor of San Francisco just banned town staff from traveling here on the public dime.
Even if it personally hurts me financially, this state has to face the backlash. So please, boycott my state.
#WeAreNotThis #BoycottNC