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STOP CALLING HB2 THE BATHROOM BILL!

The NCGOP authors of this bill--one of the most notorious pieces of discriminatory legislation to come out of a state house since the days of Jim Crow--knew that they could use the old stereotype that LGBTQ people are sexual predators to rally support for this bill. That is shameful in and of itself, since this has been disproven time and time again, and because the assault on gay and trans rights has left those communities with numerous and debilitating social, psychological, and financial problems. These communities need our support, not further stigma. An attack on the civil rights of one single citizen is an attack on all of us.

But even that venomous smear against the character of our LGBTQ sisters and brothers dilutes other ominous provisions of the law:
it ties the hands of local governments to broadly protect gay and trans rights, it specifically leaves them out of a list of groups that should be protected from discrimination, and it bans citizens from seeking redress for any bias claims in state courts, throwing these challenges into the notoriously slow and laborious federal system. Finally, HB2 curtails the ability of local jurisdictions to enact minimum wage hikes, yet another pro-business assault on the poor.

HB2 is about much more than bathrooms. It is about a Republican legislature, funded and ideologically directed by big-money interests such as Art Pope's Civitas Institute, forcing its bigoted agenda on the rest of North Carolina. It is a blatant power grab, since the GOP knows that the our state's urban areas tend to have more progressive leanings, and where minorities are concentrated. Yes, HB2's bigotry is bad for business, exemplified by major corporations and organizations like the NCAA and NBA fleeing the Tarheel State. But at its fundamental, rotten core, it is a piece of hate law, wrapped in a power grab. So stop calling it the "bathroom bill." Let's call it the Bigoted Power Grab Bill instead.

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