H is for Homophobia, Hate Laws, and Nikki Haley

I’m doing this blogging A to Z thing. Today is H.

In North Carolina, they pushed through what they’re calling the bathroom bill. Among other things, it states that people must use public bathrooms that correspond to their gender at birth. The completely unreasonable reason for this is to prevent men who are not transgender from pretending to be transgender in order to sneak into women’s restrooms. So basically, they’re punishing actual transgender people in order to safeguard against theoretical fake transgender people.

It’s important to note that this has never happened. Not once. They passed a law to address a non-existent problem. Also worth noting, they gave no consideration to how the law might be enforced. Local police departments have no idea what they’re supposed to do with this.

And while they were at it, they banned all local nondiscrimination laws. So the only problem addressed by this law was that some communities were treating the LGBT community with respect and taking steps to ensure their safety. And they couldn’t abide that.

And while not solving their non-problem, they created problems in the form of boycotts. PayPal cancelled plans to spend millions on a new facility and hire 400 or so people. Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band cancelled a concert. Movie studios and TV crews are cancelling plans to film in the state. All of this was completely predictable. It happened in Indiana.

Similar laws are popping up in other southern states. They accomplish nothing but sending a message to the LGBT community that they are not welcome and they will not be protected by the government in these states.

Earlier this week, Nikki Haley, governor of South Carolina, where a similar law is in the works, stated it was an unnecessary law, and pointed out the fact that there had been no reports of the issue the law supposedly addressed.

Hopefully other governors follow suit. Let the legislatures huff and puff as much as they want, then squash this nonsense.