#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 🧐

[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. 

[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.

[nevertrump]

Trump’s FADA approval.

Trump’s strong consideration of Supreme Court justice.

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

[myladyboydate]

Like what pussy cat doll song says: Be careful what you wish for co’z you just might get it. :P .

[mossyhappenings]

Thats cool my state just got a little less shitty (even tho they just did it to stop the nc boycott but hey i cant complain )

[minerva--mcgee]

I like seeing signs like this, but hate the fact that they're necessary.