N.C. needs broader discrimination protection
“Putting lipstick on a pig” was one of the kinder comments about how North Carolina’s General Assembly repealed House Bill 2.
The legislature finally did away with the infamous “bathroom bill” just as the NCAA was about to freeze North Carolina out as a site for post-season playoff games for years to come. The measure, however, was a “compromise” that left lots of people mad. It specifies that bathroom-access laws remain under the purview of the legislature.
It further bans cities and counties from passing or amending anti-discrimination ordinances until 2020. Remember, Charlotte had passed an anti-discrimination ordinance extending protections to gay, lesbian and transgender citizens, which set off the whole HB2 flap in the first place.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal Defense Fund promptly denounced the move as a “repeal” in name only. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III of Massachusetts asked the NCAA to keep North Carolina banned. (The NCAA announced it will consider the Tar Heel State “reluctantly.”)
No, this isn’t a full repeal. But don’t go denouncing Gov. Roy Cooper, who brokered the plan, as a homophobe and turncoat.
Frankly, given the disproportionately right-wing tilt of our legislature, the compromise was the best deal we could get – probably the only repeal we could get. Remember, at least two other HB-2 “compromises” collapsed.
When Republicans took over the legislature, they retailored the legislative districts to ensure GOP super-majorities in both chambers for the foreseeable future.
This threw the balance of power into the hands of extremely conservative, mostly rural legislators, whose worldview is often very different than their more liberal and moderate urban and suburban counterparts.
To get any better deal, we’re going to have to break up the gerrymander. To do that will probably require long lawsuits in federal courts.
It’s a shame that gay, lesbian and transgender people have to take expensive legal action simply to get the rights to which they’re entitled as American citizens. And let’s be clear – this goes far beyond bathrooms. Right now a gay person can be fired from his or her job or refused service at a hotel for … being gay. Use of restrooms could be considered a trifle compared to that kind of discrimination.
As in the battle against Jim Crow and for gay-marriage rights, the courts likely remain the best long-term remedy.
It’s worrisome, and not exactly democratic, to rely on federal judges – who aren’t elected, after all – to make democracy work. But no one else seems to be doing the job, a problem the Founders foresaw when they created our federal judiciary. Clearly our legislature won’t.
The General Assembly could have done exactly this a year ago, voiding Charlotte’s ordinance and freezing the status quo in place, without putting North Carolina through the complex, costly, self-inflicted fiasco that was HB2. Partisan gerrymandering produced super-majorities that begat hubris that invited disaster, when wisdom and moderation were in order, as always.
This debacle also is a painful reminder of why it’s never a good idea to introduce and ram through major legislation in a single day, or even a few days. Significant bills require and deserve methodical, open consideration and debate, lest they backfire or cause unintended harm.
North Carolina’s internationally notorious HB2 – our state’s worst legislation since the Speaker Ban Law of the 1960s, which likewise was rushed through without due deliberation – is a tragic reminder of how not to legislate.
This story was originally published April 14, 2017 at 7:57 AM with the headline "N.C. needs broader discrimination protection."