NC Republicans and Gov. McCrory should provide everyone in NC a bottle of Pepto for all the bullshit they’re causing.
I can’t take this dumb transgender bathroom shite anymore. North Carolina’s HB2 “Public Public Securities and Facilities Act” AKA the Bathroom Bill is trying to make an issue out of a NON-ISSUE. This bathroom law isn’t about keeping sexually deviant predators from raping little girls, it’s about allowing businesses to actively discriminate against transgender people. Technically, in North Carolina, it is a LAW to discriminate against transgender people.
Anyone who is sporting the argument “I don’t want some ‘man in a dress’ coming into the ladies room and preying on young girls” is ignorant and insulting to the rest of humanity who aren’t idiots. I have to take a strong stand on this. It’s really bothersome and the amount of shit that trans people already have to deal with is so immense that I’ll never be able to comprehend. At least let them use the bathroom in peace.
I recently had the opportunity to attend The Commonwealth Medical College’s Fourth Annual Transgender Health Conference and it was really eye opening. As far as statistics go, transgender women of color experience the highest rate of being the victims of hate crimes and murder. Transgender people attempt suicide at rate of 14.1% as compared to the general population of 1.4%. Dare I say that there is an epidemic of suicide in the transcommunity that can be prevented with just a little bit of education for the rest of the general population?
Do you know a transwoman or transman? You probably do and don’t even know it. I’m so proud to have an aunt who is transgender and is an active advocate for the trans community. She is so intelligent, the highest ranking transwoman veteran(!), is beautiful, and a woman. (Here’s her being dope af on MSNBC) If someone like her, who is a woman, is forced to use the men’s room she could be put into a very dangerous situation. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an overlap in ignorance between the people who are pro-HB2 and perpetrators of crime against transgendered people. Really, how safe do you think transpeople feel already? And then to be forced into an intimate area, surrounded by people of the opposite sex?
I grew up in men’s bathrooms. My father raised me and if my dad couldn’t find a stranger woman who looked nice enough to take me to the bathroom (which in hindsight is probably more dangerous), then the only option would be for my dad to take me into the men’s room. I’m not psychologically fucked up from seeing men pee in nasty urinals as a little girl. As an adult woman, I have used the men’s room if the ladies room line is too long and I have yet to be assaulted in a public bathroom.
And what about the dudes who ate too much at Taco Bandito and make a gross mess in the bathroom? Do you want to see some pretty lady walking in and having to use the stall you were just in? I mean, how nasty is that? So freaking gross.
Do you really want beautiful Isis King to have to experience the dangers of using a mens room?
So what else is in HB2? Well, along with the bullshit bathroom stuff there is a provision that municipalities cannot raise the minimum wage to be HIGHER than the state’s current minimum wage of $7.25. HOW CRAZY IS THAT? Say you live in Random City, N.C. and the city votes and agrees to raise the minimum wage to $10.00, well you can’t because that’s against the law. Fucked up.
I’m a fan of the boycotts happening against HB2, but that isn’t enough. Educate yourself and others around you. Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you don’t know something. To willingly stay ignorant is as bad as active discrimination. Email Governor Pat McCrory and tell him to overturn HB2. Sign this Change Petition. Email all of the House Republicans in NC because they ALL voted in favor of HB2. Watch this really telling episode of Brothers that touches on public bathroom issues. Do whatever you can do. As my baby boy Senator Sanders likes to say “Change never comes from the top down, only from the bottom up”.
C.T. Sneak 