If you ever entertained romantic notions of a North Carolina vacation…of Southern charm without the Deep South dopiness of, say, Mississippi; of Outer Banks cuisine…Ocracoke chowder, boiled drum and potatoes, maybe fresh peach pie for dessert, you might heed the travel advisory issued by the United Kingdom. It warns LGBT people of legalized homophobia in the Tar Heel State (and Mississippi as well for that matter). It’s just more fallout over those states’ recent passage of laws allowing discrimination against LGBT people. That’s on top of the pile-on by 160+ corporate CEOs, sports and entertainment industries that have canceled concerts, banned travel, halted business expansions or threatened boycotts and other acts of protest.
Of course, it’s an election year and given the Republicans’ penchant for divisive politics it’s not surprising that particularly our Southern states (still nursing their trying petulance over Emancipation) should embark on a campaign of intolerance of tolerance. An online liberal redneck succinctly summed up the phenomenon, attributing it to the disgust people have toward things they don’t understand, “You know, like homos and Algebra.”
In North Carolina, it’s called House Bill 2 (aka HB 2). It was the state’s response to a Charlotte city ordinance extending legal protections to LGBTs. HB 2, like Indiana’s religious freedom bill, makes LGBT people fair game for bigotry. It enshrines into law the ability of some to deny the rights of others. Under pressure of major corporations and civil rights groups, Indiana’s governor worked with the Republican leadership in the Legislature to craft a trailer bill that actually provided some safeguards for the LGBT community and signed both bills. But, in North Carolina, the bill was fast tracked and signed into law before anyone could react. Still, the national and international response was swift. Ironically, leading the charge are the very corporations Republicans are otherwise pleased to court. It’s about the bottom line, after all.
But, what of Wisconsin? It too has a bathroom bill in the works. Introduced as AB 469 in November of last year, its progress has been slowed, ostensibly by legislative scheduling. Gov. Scott “Windsock” Walker may prefer his Assembly procrastinate to see how costly his signature on such a bill might be. The Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce with its hundreds of member businesses could surely provide a deterrent. Wisconsin might not be able to weather a cheese and beer boycott or entertainers abandoning our lakefront festivals. Still, Walker could encourage increased local consumption of our state staples. The upside there might be raising Wisconsin’s obesity rate (we’re currently only 14th in the country according to stateofobesity.org) and that would be something to brag about.
But wait! For all the furor raised over Republican attempts to defend the sanctity of bathrooms, we may be missing their point. What better way to neutralize bathroom separatism than to insist everyone use the facilities designated for their natural-born gender? The results would be bearded, hirsute Trans guys in the ladies’ and pert Trans women in heels and smart dresses (think Caitlyn Jenner) in the Gents’. Admittedly, it’ll take a bit of adjustment but it just might work.
I’ll have to admit those crafty Republicans have finally solved the toilet stall dilemma. With all their experience, how could one expect otherwise?
