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Bathroom bill - A law that's contrary to the values of human rights and democracy
Bathroom bill - A law that's contrary to the values of human rights and democracy
1/1/17
A bill, commonly referred to
as the bathroom bill, has divided the
United States of America, a heaven for all kinds of people, from all over the
world, women and men but not for the LGBTs anymore.
A bathroom bill is
the common name for either legislation or a statute that seeks to regulate
access to public facilities – particularly restrooms or
bathrooms – by transgender individuals. Bathroom bills can affect
access for an individual based on a determination of their sex as defined in
some specific way – such as their sex as assigned
at birth or their sex as listed on their birth
certificate.
In North Carolina, this bathroom
bill is known as the HB2. The state’s HB2 bill – signed by
the Republican governor, Pat McCrory, on March 23, 2016 – blocks local
governments from creating protections for LGBT people and requires transgender
people to use the bathroom for the gender they don’t identify with.
House Bill 2 (HB2) dictates that
transgender people in North Carolina must use the public bathroom that matches
the gender stated on their birth certificate – not the gender they identify as.
That includes all public sector bathrooms, such as in government buildings,
public universities, public schools and libraries across the state. The
legislation was introduced in response to the city of Charlotte passing a local
anti-discrimination law designed to protect gay and transgender people from bias,
including allowing everyone to use the public bathrooms that matched their
gender identity. HB2 overrode the Charlotte law, and prohibited such LGBT
anti-discrimination laws statewide. The legislation also blocked local areas
from raising the minimum wage above the state level.
This “bathroom bill” brought
recriminations, lost business,
and resulted in music
boycotts and protest tours.
It has sparked huge controversy in the country of democracy and human rights.
It generated economic boycotts and strong opposition from major corporations,
including Apple and Google. PayPal abandoned its plan to bring 400 jobs to the
state, entertainers such as Bruce Springsteen canceled dates in the state.
Republican state senator Jeff
Tarte, who belongs to the state GOP minority that supports repeal, told the
Guardian on Thursday that he hoped that the law could be gone by the summer.
“It was bad legislation. It
was a mistake and when you make a mistake you need to own it and you need to
correct it,” he said.
The legislation has already
cost the state at least $630m in lost
business since it was passed last March, according to estimates by Forbes.
“It will have a further impact
on jobs,” Tarte said. “At least 70% of people in North Carolina now believe
that HB2 hurts the state and they don’t agree with it,” Tarte said, citing
recent opinion polls. He said that people were using HB2 to discriminate
against gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and “that’s a
mistake”.
He predicted that the chances
of repealing HB2 quickly in another special session of the assembly early in
2017 were unlikely.
James Esseks, national
director of the American Civil Liberties Union LGBT and HIV project, described
the impact of HB2 on the queer and trans community of North Carolina as
“inhuman and devastating”.
North Carolina’s controversial
“bathroom bill” demonstrates lawmakers’ “failure of compassion”
because it shuts out the state’s LGBT community, Sir Elton John has said.
A compromise deal involved the
city of Charlotte, state Democrats and Republicans and both the outgoing and
incoming state governors. It was expected to lead to the repealing of HB2 in
the legislature on Wednesday night 21, 2016. But after much deliberation behind
closed doors, the
attempt failed, with Democrats and Republicans accusing each other of
breaking their side of the bargain.
Demonstrations encircled North
Carolina’s statehouse, for and against a Republican-backed law curtailing
protections for LGBT people and limiting public bathroom access for
transgender people, with dozens opposing the law arrested.
Hundreds of protesters took
turns sitting outside the offices of house speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader
Phil Berger to demand repeal of the law. Police arrested 18 people at Moore’s
office, leading them away in plastic handcuffs. All but one were to be charged
with second-degree trespassing, acting general assembly police chief Martin
Brock said. One man who had to be carried out by officers was to face a
resisting arrest charge, according to Brock.
“HB2 compounds the
discrimination and marginalization of the transgender community, who already
have to fight every day for their survival,” said Joaquin Carcano, a
transgender man who’s suing over the law. “Our privacy and safety matter too.
Our right to feel safe and protected in this world does not infringe on anyone
else’s right to the same.”
The head of the state NAACP,
the reverend William Barber, called the law “Hate Bill 2”. He said it affects
the poor and minorities as well as the LGBT community, despite conservative
efforts to depict it as a law focused on bathroom safety. So pity for the U.S.
LGBT people who live in the paradise of human rights and democracy./.
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All comments [ 10 ]
HB2, which restricts bathroom options for transgender people and overrides local laws to protect LGBT people from bias, has left residents furious.
The failure to repeal it during the special session of the state general assembly on Wednesday in Raleigh was “excruciatingly frustrating”.
Every day that the law is in place it’s tarnishing the reputation of the entire state.
HB2 loosed a witch hunt and has emboldened those who see transgender people as inferior. That’s just wrong.
Forcing transgender people to use the bathroom of a gender with which they don’t identify isn’t just inconvenient or impractical. For many, especially young students still grappling with their transition, it can be traumatic, and at worst, unsafe.
The law blocks local and state protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and directs which restrooms transgender people can use in public buildings.
We need to take a stand against this hatred, this violation of human rights.
This bill is an undisguised attack on some of our most talented and most vulnerable citizens.
I don’t believe that transgender people are pedophiles.
That's a U.S. I know. Stop dream about American Dream!
Your comments