CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this letter misrepresented which law the author felt the Republican N.C. government saw as necessary. The law the author felt the Republican N.C. government saw as necessary was House Bill 2. The editorial has been updated to reflect these changes.
TO THE EDITOR:
I hear this on campus all the time, “Why do we even need laws on restrooms?” The Charlotte City Council’s law that passed February 22, 2016 requiring businesses to allow anyone to use any restroom they choose, based on how they identify is to blame for the negative media attention North Carolina has been receiving lately. House Bill 2, or H.B. 2, is not to blame. Now hold on just a minute before you have your knee-jerk response for labeling me as a bigot.
Let’s take a minute to travel back to February 21, 2016 in Charlotte, the day before the city council’s bill was passed. This was a day in which there was no N.C. state law dictating which bathroom someone can or cannot enter, and no local city ordinance forcing businesses to allow intermixing of genders in restrooms. A man who dresses like a woman could enter a restroom without breaking the law. The transgender man could enter the stall at a public university, do their business, and go about their day, legally.
The Republican N.C. government felt House Bill 2 was necessary because they thought Charlotte was overstepping its role as a governing body, and could not force private businesses to allow intermixing of restrooms, and instead should have the choice of their own restroom policies. A few weeks later after extensive negative media attention, Executive Order 93 was signed by Pat McCrory, which enacted much needed changes to H.B. 2 regarding discrimination against gender identity and sexual orientation, and allowing discrimination suits to be held in state court, instead of federal. I applaud the changes made in the executive order, but the negative media attention and job loss in North Carolina continues.
Everyone needs to put this law into context as to why it was passed — to negate an even more absurd, needless law passed by the city of Charlotte — forcing all businesses to allow anyone to enter any restroom at any time. Charlotte tried to create a solution to an imaginary problem that didn’t need to be fixed. And so with that, we can thank the “progressives” in the city of Charlotte for the reputation North Carolina has today. “Why do we even need laws on restrooms?” Ask the Charlotte City Council for your answer, not Pat McCrory.
Hamilton Read Caulkins
UNC School of Medicine 2018
