#North Carolina HB2

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican politician who recently won the GOP primary for governor, has a history of making bigoted remarks about LGBTQ+ people, including a series of unreported Facebook posts reviewed by The Advocate. These posts reveal Robinson’s years-long pattern of using homophobic slurs and promoting fearmongering claims against the LGBTQ+ community, describing it as “perverted,” “unnatural,” “sinful,” and “demonic.” Robinson repeatedly used the euphemism “British cigarette” — a term seemingly employed to circumvent Facebook’s community guidelines — to refer to a highly offensive homophobic slur. Robinson used the term at least three times. In 2017, he mocked Facebook’s standards by writing, “So apparently, using the British word for cigarettes violates Facebook’s ‘community standards.’ LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!”

The next year, he questioned whether domestic violence incidents involving transgender individuals should be categorized as violence against women, asking, “Will the feminists raise hell over it? I’m asking for a British cigarette,” and again in 2018, apparently during the Winter Olympics, commenting, “I can’t watch these Olympics. There are entirely too many British cigarettes smoking up the screen.” [...] In a particularly troubling post in 2018, Robinson posted a photo of himself with a handwritten sign that said, “GO OUTSIDE WITH THE DOG!!!” in response to a nonbinary person asking where to use the bathroom. Recently, Robinson said that trans women should be “arrested” for using the bathroom of their choice and outrageously suggested they “find a corner outside somewhere” instead. He reiterated these views in May, claiming Republicans “were right about HB2,” the 2016 anti-trans bathroom bill that cost North Carolina over $3.7 billion.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R), who is running for Governor, has a long trail of expressing homophobic and transphobic views on Facebook that predate his tenure as the state’s No. 2.

North Carolinians cannot afford to elect this anti-LGBTQ+ extremist to lead the state. Vote Josh Stein (D)!

[beemovieerotica]

we're really fucked, seeing how apathetic the response to various trans bathroom bills has been after everything that went down with HB2 eight whole years ago.

like we remember the absolute national backlash, but for me it was scientific organizations stepping up and saying that they were cancelling events and conferences in north carolina, so their employees wouldn't have to navigate all that, or choose between missing out on critical career opportunities and risk getting harassed and fined for using the bathroom?

and it worked, because money talks

and now there's just. this huge swath of the southern states where it's actively unsafe for trans people to go, and organizations are like, oh well! yeah we're still having our big symposium there :) huh why aren't there more minorities in the sciences 🧐

[unclevladscorner]

De-transitioning and Re-transitioning

As I get closer to my top surgery date, I've been reflecting on my personal journey up to this point. Finding myself again, learning to embrace my transgender-ness, getting acquainted with my own gender identity. It wasn't a straight line for me. There have been a lot of twists and turns, gaps in care, big learning moments, and a lot of days just spent doing the best I could.

But here I am, almost 9 years into an in depth journey of self discovery that's seen me do a lot of growing as a person, return to things I love deeply that depression robbed me of, and seen me transformed into a more well adjusted and more complete male presenting adult than my previous 30 years of life trying to fit into a gender identity that didn't work for me.

There was a period where I was filled with so much self doubt and overrun with personal pain I almost quit my transition. My father was dying and HB2- North Carolina's anti-trans bathroom bill- had just passed. This was a little over two years into my transition and a little over a year after starting hormones.

I'll be talking candidly about suicidal thoughts, medical injections, anti trans laws, depression, anxiety and parental death. The rest will be under the 'read more' for these reasons.

Seven years ago, my father was taken to the hospital for severe pneumonia and was diagnosed with cancer at the same time. He died 3 weeks later. He was admitted to a hospital that has expressly stated they would be enforcing North Carolina's bathroom bill- Basically it was illegal to use the restroom if it didn't match the gender on your birth certificate.

More on HB2 here-

I had gone a full year up until this point without speaking to my father or stepmother, due to transphobic remarks and high resistance to my preferred name and pronouns. I was 31 years old- plenty old enough to make these decisions for myself. All I wanted was to have a better relationship with my parents along with a better relationship with myself. I'd hoped my self improvement would improve my familial relationships, too.

Several weeks after breaking my silence and stopping to visit my father at his shop, I found myself in a place where I did not feel comfortable using the restroom or even being in the building for long hours while watching my father die slowly.

The added stress made me unable to continue my hormone replacement therapy. I'd started testosterone more than a year before, but intramuscular injections had become so stressful for me I had to stop. The difficulty of injecting myself with such a long needle, with an injection site hard to reach by myself, coupled with my own fear of said needle, had made it an emotional labor I couldn't pay for anymore.

My father dying simply compounded the issue. I felt lost at his passing. In spite of all his flaws and being only the world's okay-ist dad, he was one of the few constants in my life. Losing him made me feel like I'd lost the little bit of support in the world I had, and I felt listless and alone for a long time after.

I lost my insurance due to a job change in this time frame, too. I let my self care slip, and I used it as an excuse to not go back to the doctor to discuss other hrt options. At first I wondered if I'd made the right decision in the first place. Was hrt doing anything? It was; and I knew testosterone was the only reason I made it through my father's passing. Depression, my fear of needles, and my poor financial state wouldn't let me entertain going back on it.

It was also very apparent to me how much I NEEDED to transition, once I backpedaled and started letting people use my old name and pronouns. Dysphoria jumped back up and the world seemed unbearable. Depression dogged me, my relationship with myself began to come apart.

I could feel myself getting lost in my own sadness again. I began to hate myself again, and I began to plan to commit suicide. While changing my name and pronouns helped a lot, I hadn't had a suicidal thought the whole year I was consistently on testosterone. While not something everyone wants or needs- it was obvious in the space of just a few months that hormone replacement therapy was necessary for me to successfully transition.

In a strange turn of events- a trip to Disney World got me back on track. I talked to my partner about how I was feeling, and we agreed we'd use the trip to help me practice using the men's room and rebuild my relationship with myself and my gender identity. The park had issued a statement saying guests were free to use the bathrooms they felt most comfortable in, and encouraged those unsure to use their family (now gender neutral) single stall facilities.

The friend who booked the trip had made sure to put my preferred name on everything, and everyone on the trip was great about my name and pronouns. Having the support of people who didn't know me very well- but wanted to be good friends and allies anyway- really helped me realign myself over the course of the trip.

After that trip; and a horrible final Thanksgiving with my transphobic stepmother, I became determined to get my transition back on track. That following January I got new insurance, and I went back to my doctor to discuss alternative dosing methods for testosterone.

Its been almost 6 years since then. Changing injection methods helped a lot. SubQ uses an almost comically small needle in comparison to intramuscular injections. My irrational fear could not compete with the very un-scary needle, and I can confidently take my medication on time and on a consistent schedule.

Over the course of that year, I learned that I had to take care of myself it I wanted to be a good partner and friend. Changing my gender identity- shifting it to a place that made me euphoric and happy- improved my life in ways that nothing else had. Testosterone helped me me feel whole, and has made me feel like a complete person.

People choose to detransition for a lot of reasons- lack of support for there transition and intense pressure to discontinue are only a few. These were some of the pressures put on me- coupled with laws that scared me and parental death- and it made me lose faith in the path I was on.

Some people don't return to transitioning, but I think there are more people like me than we hear about. People who transition in fits and starts. Have to stop and return later. I just wanted to take some time to talk about it, just in case anyone out there is struggling and wondering what they should do, and what the possibilities were.

[mxswell]

just being aroind and letting others see you exist can be Enough.

in North Carolina when HB2 hit, i would perform shows back as an out and out genderqueer weirdo. the amount of people who came up to me afterwards or gave me knowing looks was astounding.

existing so others know its possible is the goal. anything else is a bonus

I’m not exaggerating when I say this post changed my life. Seeing this as a terrified self hating 17 year old was like finding a fresh water lake in the middle of the Sahara.

[coinshotmisting]

Remeber when North Carolina passed HB2 and several major industries boycotted the state, leading to the republican governor getting ousted and replaced? and now HB2 is like. the party line for Republicans? cause i do. and i hope round 2 goes ok

[mediamattersforamerica]

The Trump administration has withdrawn federal protections for transgender students, but their argument for doing so is based on years of right-wing bullshit. 

Conservatives still can’t name a single instance where these protections were abused. 

[digdag88]

this was from 2015

[action]

What do you think of North Carolina's HB2? How would you respond to such a bill brought in your state?

We have made it clear that North Carolina’s HB2 law is a form of state-sanctioned discrimination. We immediately suspended city-funded travel to North Carolina as a result of that law. Although the state recently repealed portions of the law, we still find it unacceptable, particularly because it prevents local jurisdictions from enacting anti-discrimination protections until 2020, and it specifically prohibits municipalities from determining regulations related to the bathroom use. If similar legislation was ever brought before our state, we would advocate vigorously against its passage and use every tool available—whether political, legal, social or economic—to ensure that it never became enshrined in law.

[thenib]

Nomi Kane in our newsletter.

[hellazan]

I got my la dispute shirt against hb2 today. Pretty rad.

[itsnotblonde]

What do you mean?

Right. So. These “bathroom bills” are proposed/passed under the guise of protecting women and children from hypothetical predatory cis men who sneak into the women’s restroom by pretending to be women. That’s why they all place a huge emphasis on birth certificates. So in passing these bills, as we all know, trans women are forced into men’s bathrooms and trans men into women’s. This is assuming they haven’t changed the gender marker on their birth certificate (in Texas, this is nearly impossible). Now putting trans men into women’s bathrooms creates a multitude of problems. For instance, the sight of a man in such a private place could potentially trigger someone, or it may invalidate the trans man’s identity. But it also, quite literally, opens the door for those predatory cis men to go into the women’s room. (for the sake of this argument) Trans men who have been on T look cis. I mean, you would not be able to tell the difference between a trans man and cis man. So who’s to stop the cis men from entering the women’s room then?

[forbes]

In true Carolina fashion, the N.C. legislature passed a buzzer-beater bill repealing its infamous 'Bathroom Law,' right in the nick of time to be considered for a championship by the NCAA. But activists on the left don't think the repeal does enough for LGBTQ residents.

[justinssportscorner]

Zack Ford at ThinkProgress:

Discrimination won the championship this year.

The NCAA announced Tuesday morning that it completely fell for the bait-and-switch concocted by Republican leadership in North Carolina’s legislature and Gov. Roy Cooper (D). Last week, they passed a compromise bill that repealed HB2, the state’s infamous anti-LGBT law, and replaced it with HB142, which consists of most of the same provisions that HB2 had.

In its statement, the NCAA acknowledged that “this new law is far from perfect” — but apparently, the organization’s standard is so low for standing by its LGBT students, staff, and fans that it’s still rewarding North Carolina by reopening the state for consideration in hosting championship events.

“We recognize the quality championships hosted by the people of North Carolina in years before HB2,” the NCAA wrote. “And this new law restores the state to that legal landscape: a landscape similar to other jurisdictions presently hosting NCAA championships.”

This is blatantly untrue. Only two other states, Arkansas and Tennessee, ban municipalities from passing LGBT nondiscrimination protections. No other state has North Carolina’s new prohibition on any subdivision of government creating policies assuring transgender people have access to restrooms.

“This new law has minimally achieved a situation where we believe NCAA championships may be conducted in a nondiscriminatory environment,” the organization wrote. “Outside of bathroom facilities, the new law allows our campuses to maintain their own policies against discrimination, including protecting LGBTQ rights, and allows cities’ existing nondiscrimination ordinances, including LBGTQ protections, to remain effective.”

In other words, it doesn’t matter if trans people can’t be guaranteed access to bathrooms — or that the state law imposing that burden continues to unfairly stigmatize transgender people as some kind of threat to safety — because everything else is apparently good enough for the NCAA to return.

[ink-em-dan0]

North Carolina Governor Expected to Sign Repeal of Bathroom Law Help me out here. Where is the compromise? What did the LGBT community get out of this compromise? Sounds like they repealed HB2 in name but stipulated all the stuff that was in HB2 remains essentially the same. "Leaves regulation of bathrooms to state lawmakers"... well wasn't regulating bathrooms what they did in HB2? Why should we expect they will regulate them differently now? I just don't get it.

[sarcasticcynic]

NOTE: CNN published this report before the November election.

Fake news has not become less of a problem since then.

[nevertrump]

Trump’s FADA approval.

Trump’s strong consideration of Supreme Court justice.

Trump’s pledge to sign North Carolina’s HB2.