Category: The Brad and Britt show

On Feb. 22, Charlotte passed an ordinance expanding North Carolina’s antidiscrimination laws so that LGBT people would also be granted protection in places of “public accommodation” — which, among other things, would allow transgender people to use the bathrooms of the gender they identify as. This ordinance was to go in effect on April 1.

But in response, at a special session on March 23, North Carolina’s General Assembly proposed and passed the House Bill 2 (HB2) — or the “bathroom bill” — and Gov. Pat McCrory signed it into law that same night.

The new law did more than repeal the Charlotte ordinance. It made the state’s law on antidiscrimination — which covers race, religion, national origin, color, age, biological sex and handicaps — the final word. Meaning cities and local governments can’t expand “employment” or “public accommodations” protections to others, such as on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Back to letter-writer Wayne Stanko of Asheville.  His question is so good, so important, and so relevant to the discussion that it seems to have been lost on everyone on all sides.  Let me try to help.    

The law in North Carolina will demand that everyone use…. and this is a new, copyrighted term…. their “birth identity bathroom.”  This is determined the first few seconds after you’re born and a confirmed, visual inspection by those present ascertains your sex as male or female.   This is entered on your birth certificate and correspondently which public restrooms and locker rooms you shall be permitted to access for the rest of your natural life.  That decision is not subject to appeal, change, alteration, surgery, emotions, internal struggles, or those so-called gender “identity” issues later in life.  Case closed.  Good day, madam… or sir.

What good is any law if there is no way to enforce it fairly?  NC HB2 is not like speeding, where the cops have and use discretion all the time when you’re over the speed limit, often actually seeing you whiz by. While no one demands all speed laws be repealed because all violators can’t be observed, let alone charged and punished…  we agree they serve a societal purpose in giving us reasonable guidelines on how fast we can safely drive under most conditions.

There surely are tens of thousands of public bathrooms in North Carolina, none of which are or will be patrolled by controlling legal authorities. That a transgender person who feels more comfortable not using his or her “birth identity bathroom” is violating the law will not be the question. That person is a lawbreaker.  Without resorting to bathroom police jokes, letter-writer Wayne Stanko single-handedly destroys the very idea of the law. Will there be a guard outside every restroom in the state checking peoples’ sex organs?  Will there be any guards outside (or inside) of any restroom in North Carolina.  Of course not.

When speaking of relations with the Soviet Union, most notably on nuclear arms control, Ronald Reagan put the Russian proverb, Доверяй но Проверяй, pronounced Doveryai no Proveryai, which means trust, but verify, into common usage.  The North Carolina legislature and its governor, Pat McCrory, included nothing at all about actual enforcement of this law.  A law that was so important that it needed to be codified practically overnight with no input from anyone in opposition. A slap-dash, instant paste-together job, there was nothing in the law about actual enforcement.  There couldn’t be.  Putting faith in the very transgender and fake transgender men who the law is supposed to stop from using the lady’s room to molest your daughter, sister, or mom, it’s a 100% honor system law.  With more expansion of “if you see something, say something” than you ever thought possible, HB2 turns around the standard conservative line that liberals like to pass meaningless, unenforcible laws that make them feel good.  That’s the umbrella criticism of all attempts at gun control.  The bad guys will never give up their guns and you’re unarmed.  If there are transgender people or fake transgender people hellbent on using public bathroom access to molest and assault, why do the proponents of this law think they will obey it?  No trust, no verify.

Of course, it’s all happening in North Carolina, home of mythical Mayberry, where regular, normal citizens were more than happy to step up and help the cops.  Maybe it can happen again. Barney made that u-turn and BAM, Gomer on the case!