The agenda against LGBTQ people just hit a new extreme in North Carolina. A local attempt to offer protections for transgender people in Charlotte was overturned on the state level with the passage of the law HB2, which not only reverses a the Charlotte ordinance, it nullifies any attempt to expand anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ people at the municipal level. HB2 was passed and almost immediately signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory on March 23.
The legislation has sparked immediate backlash. A protest was already called to decry the injustice of the law as well as the nefarious procedure to implement it. Scores upon scores of protesters can be seen in a video on teleSUR English taking the streets in North Carolina, crying out “Whose streets?! Our streets!” The protesters joined hands to create a barrier, and the police can be seen trying to force their way through the line and attempt to instigate violence. People have taken to social media to speak out against the law as well, commonly declaring “You’ve already shared a bathroom with a trans person. You were fine.”
The biggest blow struck by this new law is that it blocks any attempt to implement any future pro-LGBTQ protections at the municipal level, getting rid of locally passed LGBTQ protections in NC cities including Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Charlotte. Similar bills have been introduced nationwide, and in the first three months of 2016, dozens of proposals discriminating against LGBTQ people have been written up, more than were proposed through the entirety of 2015.
Liberation interviews NC socialist activist
Liberation News spoke with Max Reed, a member of Party for Socialism and Liberation from North Carolina, about the impact of this law on the ground. Reed told us us: “Before the law passed, I had never met anyone who would have been for a law like that. But when the law passed, that’s when the bigots come out. They’re enabled. But there’s been a lot of fightback against it too.”
Referring to the protest publicized by Telesur, Reed said, “We need to take this to the front doors of the politicians. And people are doing that. There’s a demo at [Governor] Pat McCrory’s front door.”
Reed added, “There hasn’t been a single incident when trans people have attacked anyone in a bathroom. It’s just instigating fear to demonize people…It’s definitely a wake-up call.”
The fightback in North Carolina, both among LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ people, has been inspiring. According to Reed, “I do not think that these politicians represent the opinions of the people. I think that if there was a referendum on this law, the people would not have voted it in.”
When asked what he thought the new risks were to the LGBTQ community, Reed said firmly: “I think there are huge risks — it sets up transgender teenagers for assault. A trans woman would be physically assaulted if she was forced to go to a men’s bathroom. And most of the liberals who passively agree with the law say that there are ‘bigger deals’ in the world, they don’t see what the ‘big deal’ is. It’s a completely egotistical outlook, they themselves are not targeted or threatened by this law passing — so they do not see the total outcome, but there is a whole community that is subjected to discrimination and targeting, and that kind of outlook is a very self-centered and uneducated outlook. I think that more education on how huge the trans community is and how natural it is would definitely do a lot. We need to evolve past targeting and discrimination.”
The “bathroom issue”
Transphobic bigots want to chalk up the overturn to an attempt to keep women safe, but we know that’s not the case. The lawmakers aren’t concerned with making sure all women – because transwomen are women – and all people who choose to use a women’s restroom– are safe. Nor do they seek to assure the safety of any person who uses a restroom that best matches their gender identity. If it really was as simple as bathrooms and safety, they’d care about the level of mistreatment and violence a trans woman would sustain for using the men’s bathroom.
The only “defense” we’ve seen is bigots and conservatives pledging to police restrooms for the possibility of spotting a transwoman. Gov. McCrory claims the law is an attempt to “ensure privacy,” which makes absolutely no sense and is disgustingly hypocritical, as the law targets and violently outs trans people. In reality, over two-thirds of trans people experience harassment in bathrooms.
Trans organizer IV Staklo, a leader of the national initiative Justice for Jane Doe, told Liberation: “Laws like this are an exacerbation of all the problems trans people are still facing today despite anti-discrimination protections. In many places, it’s still very easy to be barred from using any bathroom in a school or workplace. Trans people have a very hard time finding basic safety anywhere because of the hateful lies spread by the right wing. You can’t work 8 hours if you can’t use the bathroom safely. You can’t be a youth and go to school comfortably if you know that you’re in danger of being assaulted in the restroom. The introduction of laws like HB2 only further enables the worst types of bigotry present under this system. Trans people face higher rates of assault, murder and suicide than any other demographic. We cannot afford to stand by when laws like this are passed — it’s a matter of life and death for us. That is why we are in the streets, fighting this.”
Unity needed
The North Carolina law is only the most recent and most vicious attack on LGBTQ rights, and it is yet another example of the nefarious capitalist system. However, similar bills were struck down in South Dakota, Georgia and Nevada through a militant movement in the streets, and the people of North Carolina are ramping up their response too. Additionally, with the help of the ACLU, two trans men and a lesbian law professor at North Carolina Central University have already filed a lawsuit against the state to challenge the law.
We need not just the voices of the trans and queer community to speak against this kind of injustice, but the voices of straight people as well. Laws like HB2 must be struck down, as must the system which encourages the active suppression of LGBTQ people. As long as capitalism exists, reactionary policies like this will always be the response from the establishment to progressive reforms won in the streets.
We need full protection, and that means we need to fight for a system which will secure and guarantee these rights, as well as rights for all struggling and marginalized people.
