Pondering a pandering special session

by Chris Fitzsimon, NC  Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, February 26, 2016.

The demagogues in Raleigh are now seriously considering a special session of the General Assembly to overturn the nondiscrimination ordinance passed by the Charlotte City Council that provides basic rights for members of the LGBT community in the state’s largest city.

Most of the controversy surrounds a provision that allow transgender people to use the use the public restroom that corresponds to their gender identity, which seems to make sense.

But not to Gov. Pat McCrory, House Speaker Tim Moore, and other Republican leaders who claim the provision is somehow a threat to public safety, invoking fears of sexual predators flocking to Charlotte bathrooms.

It’s absurd and offensive and seems like a transparent attempt by the politicians to rally their far-right religious base, who by the way also oppose the rest of the ordinance which says that LGBT people cannot be denied services available to the general public based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

McCrory and Moore are silent about that part of the ordinance and frustratingly it seems that no reporters have yet asked them directly about their position on whether LGBT people should be protected from discrimination.

And it’s worth noting that neither McCrory nor Moore have supported efforts to pass an employment nondiscrimination bill. That means that in North Carolina you can be fired simply for being gay.

McCrory and Moore and other legislators prefer instead to fixate public attention on the bathroom provision that is part of similar ordinances across the country, including Columbia, South Carolina.

Here are a few more questions they need to answer while they contemplate calling a special of the General Assembly to deny basic rights to North Carolina residents.

Do they have any evidence of public safety issues in any of the other more than 250 local governments that have passed similar ordinances?

Have they talked to local or state officials that currently have these ordinances to see how they have been implemented and what if any issues arose?

Are they aware that all the laws that govern behavior in public bathrooms about assault, exposure, etc., are still on the books and can still be enforced?

And maybe most importantly have they ever talked to transgender people about what they have faced in their lives when simply wanted to use a public facility like everybody else?

And finally, as Rob Schofield of NC Policy Watch asked this week, why do they want to use the same restroom as Caitlyn Jenner? That is basically what they are saying.

Before state leaders take the extraordinary step of convening a special session of the General Assembly that is already scheduled to come back into session in just over a month anyway, surely they want to do their homework and actually understand why they are planning to do.

Moore told reporters this week that public sentiment is overwhelmingly against the ordinance which is certainly debatable but raises all sort of other questions.

If the public is concerned about it, it might be because Moore and McCrory and their allies like Franklin Graham keep scaring everybody with false claims and fear-mongering.

And if Moore’s criteria for a special session are based on overwhelming public sentiment, we need a special session next week to raise the minimum wage and to create an independent redistricting process because a huge majority of North Carolinians support both of those things.

This is not about public safety. It is about cynical, pathetic and pandering politics. Moore and McCrory know better but would rather rally their base than respond rationally to a common sense ordinance to protect the rights of people in their community.

We don’t need a special session. We need political leaders to stop dividing us and stoking fear.

Special session for official state firearm night be next

And in the category of you can’t make this stuff up, the Washington Post reported this week that the state of Tennessee has officially adopted the Barrett .50 caliber rifle as the official state rifle of Tennessee.

You probably didn’t know that states have official firearms, but seven currently do. Also worth noting, as the Post points out, is that rounds from the Barrett rifle can “…penetrate light armor, down helicopters, destroy commercial aircraft, and blast through rail cars.”

The designer of the gun, described as the one of the most destructive weapons available to civilians, was designed by a Tennessee native who is also on the board of the NRA.

Goodness knows when you are out hunting it always helps to be able to destroy a commercial plane.

And of course you can probably get one some places without undergoing a pesky background check.

North Carolina is not one of the states that has adopted an official firearm. Not yet anyway.

It might be time for another special session once legislative leaders get over their obsession with bathrooms.