Graphic by WRAL[/caption]If the leaders of the N.C. House and Senate had asked these questions before they pushed through House Bill 2, we might have avoided national embarrassment and expensive blowback.
If the governor had asked some of these questions before he signed the controversial legislation, there might have been time for cooler heads to prevent the debacle we find ourselves drowning in.
But they chose to ignore obvious problems with the legislation they call the "bathroom bill" but which is really about whether this state will allow its gay, lesbian and transgender residents to have protection against discrimination.
To say HB2 has some flaws is deep understatement. But our state's leaders ignored the problems, at least until the law landed in a federal court this week. Now they'll have to see their blindness.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder - a Republican appointee - heard arguments Monday on whether the bill should be suspended while lawsuits against it work their way through the courts.
During the hearing, Schroeder asked lawyer Butch Bowers, who is representing Gov. Pat McCrory in the suits, how the legislation makes bathrooms and changing facilities safer. "How is it enforced?" the judge asked. "There is no enforcement mechanism of the law," Bowers said. "Then why have it?" Schroeder asked.
Schroeder asked a lot of questions during the hearing, for which there were no good answers - including these:
Why weren't there public hearings on the bill?
If overturning a Charlotte anti-discrimination ordinance was the reason for HB2, why didn't they just stop there?
Don't existing laws on peeping, molestation, trespassing and indecent exposure already protect people in public restrooms?
Schroeder's questions lead to one place: The law wasn't necessary and it goes far beyond the ostensible reason for passing the bill in a hurriedly called emergency session in March. Taking down Charlotte's controversial anti-discrimination law, which extended protection to sexual orientation and gender choice, would have been enough. A sweeping law that forces transgender people to use the public restrooms that correspond with their birth certificates was unnecessary, creating new problems instead of solving ones already covered by existing law.
Schroeder said he would try to rule on the case before school opens later this month. We hope his decision exhibits as much common sense as his questions did.
