Race Jones
gangster. grace. alchemy
Legislators and Gov. Roy Cooper hailed Thursday’s HB2 repeal bill as a compromise. In fact, it is nothing of the kind. It is a betrayal of the promises the governor made to the LGBT community and a doubling down on discrimination by Republican legislators who have backed it all along.
House Bill 142 literally does not do one thing to protect the LGBT community and locks in HB2’s most basic and offensive provision. It repeals HB2 in name only and will not satisfy any business or organization that is truly intolerant of an anti-gay environment and of a state that codifies discrimination.
HB2’s most fundamental requirement was that local governments cannot pass anti-discrimination ordinances that govern public accommodations such as restaurants and hotels. Under Thursday’s agreement, that is still true, until at least December 2020.
HB2 was a Republican-written law, passed primarily by Republican supermajorities. It has been an embarrassment for North Carolina since the day it passed – so much so that even House and Senate Republican leaders eventually agreed it needed to be repealed. The onus is on them, not on Cooper and other Democrats, to make things right. Purely from a political strategy perspective, Democrats held the upper hand, not because they had the numbers but because they had public opinion on their side. Yet they are poised to cave anyway and essentially lock in HB2’s key requirements for years.
Which politicians win or lose is hardly even a secondary question, however. Even the economic impact and whether this new bill will stem the flow of businesses, conventions, concerts and other events crossing North Carolina off the list is not its best measure. The measure is that under North Carolina law going forward, our fellow human beings would live in a society where they are not regarded as equals and where they can be legally denied service because of whom they love.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article141667999.html#storylink=cpy
House Bill 142 literally does not do one thing to protect the LGBT community and locks in HB2’s most basic and offensive provision. It repeals HB2 in name only and will not satisfy any business or organization that is truly intolerant of an anti-gay environment and of a state that codifies discrimination.
HB2’s most fundamental requirement was that local governments cannot pass anti-discrimination ordinances that govern public accommodations such as restaurants and hotels. Under Thursday’s agreement, that is still true, until at least December 2020.
HB2 was a Republican-written law, passed primarily by Republican supermajorities. It has been an embarrassment for North Carolina since the day it passed – so much so that even House and Senate Republican leaders eventually agreed it needed to be repealed. The onus is on them, not on Cooper and other Democrats, to make things right. Purely from a political strategy perspective, Democrats held the upper hand, not because they had the numbers but because they had public opinion on their side. Yet they are poised to cave anyway and essentially lock in HB2’s key requirements for years.
Which politicians win or lose is hardly even a secondary question, however. Even the economic impact and whether this new bill will stem the flow of businesses, conventions, concerts and other events crossing North Carolina off the list is not its best measure. The measure is that under North Carolina law going forward, our fellow human beings would live in a society where they are not regarded as equals and where they can be legally denied service because of whom they love.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article141667999.html#storylink=cpy
