Friday, May 13, 2016

Pat McRory: "Revisit the Civil Rights Act to allow transgender segregation in bathrooms."

North Carolina governor Pat McRory wasn't happy about the City of Charlotte's nondiscrimination ordinance passed back in February. Neither were most North Carolina Republicans. In fact, this ordinace is what spurred the creation of North Carolina HB2, the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act. It was passed on March 23 during a special session in the North Carolina General Assembly after about 11 hours. The bill was pushed through very fast, with little thought put into how the law was going to be enforced.

The bill has spawned some serious backlash. PayPal withdrew its planned expansion into Charlotte. 1MORE USA, a San Diego tech company, boycotted sales to North Carolina. Several states, cities, and counties have banned publicly-funded employee travel to North Carolina. Several filming projects have been cancelled or reconsidered by directors and studios. Several musical and sports events have been either cancelled or reconsidered as well.

Polls show that a majority of North Carolina citizens oppose the bill and believe that it has given the sate a negative reputation. Only 36% support the bill, although 56% support what the bill requires of transgender people. The bill was criticized by the President, as well as Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, John Kasich, and Donald Trump. Yes, really.

On May 4, the United States Department of Justice notified Pat McRory that HB2 violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, giving McRory until May 9 to confirm that North Carolina would not implement the bill. On May 9, McRory filed a lawsuit against the US Government seeking a declaratory judgment that House Bill 2 was not discriminatory. Later that day, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch filed a lawsuit against North Carolina.

Pat McRory has repeatedly praised the bill, and criticized the US Government's actions against it. Initially, he accused the government of "radically reinterpreting" the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for a "far left" agenda. Recently, however, he claimed that Congress should "reexamine" the Civil Rights Act so "the Left" doesn't use it to "target" North Carolina as part of their "agenda."