Last week in an “emergency session” lasting a single day, the North Carolina General Assembly and Gov. Pat McCrory passed and signed HB2 as a counter move against an anti-LGBTQ discrimination act passed in Charlotte. HB2 attacks not just one, but several sectors within the N.C. working class and oppressed communities.
The law forces public schools and agencies to segregate bathrooms based on the sex listed on one’s birth certificate, not an individual’s gender identity—a move that exposes transgender people to a high risk of violence.
Additionally, the bill prohibits any city or county from passing new anti-LGBTQ discrimination laws with both immediate and possibly long lasting effects. The most immediate effect is the reversal of the hard won gains in Charlotte. This is clearly hypocrisy on the part of the reactionary right wing as it contradicts their oft-repeated false mantra of “small and limited government,” overriding the right of local municipalities with more diverse electorates to enact progressive and protective laws for oppressed people.
The bill not only attacks the LGBTQ community; the “Wage and Hour,” Section 2, gives the state the power to override local efforts to raise the minimum wage and protect the civil rights of local residents. While this will certainly affect all workers, the impact will be even more devastating for Black workers, already at a massive disadvantage due to the legacy of slavery and the history of Jim Crow policies. Likewise, the attack continues against women in the workplace who still earn up to a third less than men.
That such an extreme act was able to pass so quickly is an understandable source of worry for many. However, that it had to be pushed through quickly is also cause for hope because the reactionaries knew that their actions would draw a firestorm of opposition. The immediate response of the multinational LGBTQ community at the governor’s house is thought to be just the beginning of a new united counteroffensive against the right.
As N.C. NAACP President William Barber said, “If today’s extremists are willing to stoop low, they must be desperate. They know their days are numbered as they watch white male voters become one among many minorities in the Old North State, while those who have been divided by the Southern strategy continue to stand together.
“As they desperately work to sow the seed of fear, we stand with our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, our friends in the fight for 15, our undocumented neighbors, and those for Black lives to say: ‘We are North Carolina. We are the future. We aren’t going anywhere, and you have nothing to fear.’”
