NC Governor: LGBT Bill Won’t Change Any Existing Policies Except for the Ones That It Will Change
At a press conference yesterday, North Carolina Governor Pat McCory said he felt “blindsided” by a question about the implications of the “religious freedom” bill he signed last week. If he felt blindsided, imagine how the LGBT citizens of his state that have been freshly stripped of their rights feel!
McCrory spoke with reporters after a groundbreaking event for Novo Nordisk in Clayton. He said reports that House Bill 2 revokes discrimination protections are wrong.
“We have not taken away any rights that have currently existed in any city in North Carolina, from Raleigh to Durham to Chapel Hill to Charlotte,” he said. “Every city and every corporation have the exact same nondiscrimination policy this week as they had two weeks ago.”
But then:
When a reporter told McCrory that the law appears to revoke a fair housing ordinance in Greensboro and a policy governing municipal contracts in Raleigh, he said he didn’t know whether the policies would be eliminated.
“You’re blindsiding me with a question,” McCrory said. “I’ve been traveling all day, so you’re telling me something I’m not aware of.”
A McCrory spokesman, Graham Wilson, later clarified via email that the law doesn’t affect local housing ordinances, but he said he’s “still not sure” about the impact on other types of ordinances.
Raleigh and Carrboro, for example, have banned their contractors from engaging in hiring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The new law appears to strike down those requirements.
Nice. McCory claimed that reports on the bigoted bill are “distorting the truth” and “smearing our state.” He told NBC News that the outcry against the bill was “well-coordinated political theater.”
“This political correctness has gone amuck,” he said, punctuating his words with a chuckle that, I guess, is supposed to be folksy but looks creepy to these Yankee eyes. I’d like to introduce a bill that ensures that I never have to share a bathroom with McCrory.
“We are too much politically correct,” McCrory continued. “This political correctness in our nation has taken over common sense. And the common sense is not to have a government regulation telling business who they allow in what restroom or locker room or shower facility. I’mma let them decide. It’s not my decision in government to make that decision.”
“But you’re not letting them decide, you’re saying they have to use the restroom that’s listed on their birth certificate,” pointed out NBC.
“No, that’s incorrect,” said McCrory, interrupting. “This is where NBC is very incorrect.”
“We’re talking not about businesses, but, say a state university, right?” countered the NBC reporter.
“The only exception is our state universities, our high schools, and our elementary schools,” McCrory conceded.
“You know, we all have to make adjustments in life,” said a man who seems allergic to adjustments. “And we’ve had these proper etiquette situations for decades in our country, and all of a sudden, through political correctness, we’re throwing away basic etiquette. I mean, wonder if your daughter or son was showering and all of a sudden a man walks into the locker room and says, ‘This is what I am.’ Would you want that for your child?”
Governor McCrory is a disingenuous politician who’s running for reelection and who hasn’t considered the full discriminatory implications of his bill simply because he didn’t feel that he had to.
