Which one of you cowards is Ferd Sheed?

[DanaC]

I do find this whole thing slightly baffling to be honest. I could sort of understand if the existing laws prohibited people going into bathrooms that did not match their gender at birth and there was a movement to overturn those laws, that some people wuold find that unsettling and oppose the loosening of restrictions. What I cannot get my head around is why anybody would seek to impose new restrictions - has there been a flurry of incidents in which either trans gender people caused trouble by going into the 'wrong' bathroom, or in which non-transgender people went into the other gender's bathroom to peep or abuse under the cover of a pretended transgender status?

It seems to be legislation for no real reason other than that, with the growth of transgender identities in the mainstream, some people feel icky at the thought.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by DanaC

in which non-transgender people went into the other gender's bathroom to peep or abuse under the cover of a pretended transgender status?

This is (half of) what it's really about. Whether or not you believe the above fear is legitimate, it's completely disingenuous for opponents to keep making this about whether genuinely trans people are genuinely dangerous. Of course they're not. This law is about 1.) the idea of a creepy, rapey straight man who puts on a dress just so he can go watch your wife pee, and 2.) the straight man's fear that a woman he is attracted to might turn out to be a man. This law forces the chicks with dicks into outing themselves, thus protecting the men from getting too close to secret dick.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by DanaC

It seems to be legislation for no real reason other than that, with the growth of transgender identities in the mainstream, some people feel icky at the thought.

Sounds about right to me too.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

This is (half of) what it's really about. Whether or not you believe the above fear is legitimate, it's completely disingenuous for opponents to keep making this about whether genuinely trans people are genuinely dangerous. Of course they're not. This law is about 1.) the idea of a creepy, rapey straight man who puts on a dress just so he can go watch your wife pee, and 2.) the straight man's fear that a woman he is attracted to might turn out to be a man. This law forces the chicks with dicks into outing themselves, thus protecting the men from getting too close to secret dick.

Damn, that's well put.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yeah, I still don't think the NC legislature considered trans at all, simply a law to make it illegal for men to go in the ladies room. That way if some pervert did, there was a crime they could charge/punish him with. Who could be against That? I think it was just ignorance, being blind to the sexual landscape, that allowed this to happen. I subscribe to Hanlon's Razor.

[Happy Monkey]

No, it was explicitly written to override a city's law allowing trans people to use the appropriate restroom. They knew what they were doing.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Where did you see that?

[Happy Monkey]

It was in all the news when it came out... Here's one article.

Originally Posted by CNN

Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed the bill Wednesday night and tweeted, "Ordinance defied common sense, allowing men to use women's bathroom/locker room for instance. That's why I signed bipartisan bill to stop it."
...
The General Assembly went into special session earlier in the day to push through the legislation, a response to a nondiscrimination ordinance that the city of Charlotte enacted that, among other things, made it possible for transgender individuals to use the public bathroom of the sex they identify as.
...
"Rather than expand nondiscrimination laws to protect all North Carolinians, the General Assembly instead spent $42,000 to rush through an extreme bill that undoes all local nondiscrimination laws and specifically excludes gay and transgender people from legal protections," said Sarah Preston, acting executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina.

[xoxoxoBruce]

OK, I'm wrong then, unless CNN and the ALCU are assuming evil intent then the legislature, at least the leadership, knew exactly what they were doing.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Yeah, I still don't think the NC legislature considered trans at all, simply a law to make it illegal for men to go in the ladies room. That way if some pervert did, there was a crime they could charge/punish him with. Who could be against That? I think it was just ignorance, being blind to the sexual landscape, that allowed this to happen. I subscribe to Hanlon's Razor.

You're the textbook example of what I was talking about; get'em all het up about who could object to criminalizing perverts in the ladies' room? But really do waaay more.

Like override the city ordinances already in place in twenty cities

Like rolling back the longstanding ability of employees to sue their employers, take it to federal court.

Like making it illegal by state law for any city to make minimum wage laws, like we've done in Seattle.

And it was done in a way that was... Rushed. Opaque. Releasing the text of the bill only 30 Minutes before the committee vote, and doing it in a one day emergency session.

They don't want to give the opposition, also citizens, any opportunity to object.

Total power grab.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Fuck you, I am not the textbook case of anything. I was trying to figure out how this happened, and until HM came up with evidence of malice, I attributed it to stupidity. As for your other five examples I assure you I had nothing to do with them either.

[BigV]

That you just noticed the big headline about keeping perverts out of the ladies room and missed all the rest is a representative sample of the overwhelming majority of reactions.

OF COURSE, you're a special snowflake and I and everyone here loves that about you.

But your response to this epic misdirection was exactly what the lawmakers were counting on. They buried the gotcha deep inside an irresistibly juicy worm. Lots took the bait. We'll see if the body politic can shake the hook on appeal.

[Aliantha]

I bet it's facebook's fault this law even happened. I mean, if it wasn't for facebook, no one would ever know that someone else didn't like how they think. They definitely wouldn't know how offensive their friends were, and they probably wouldn't even know they were transgender if it wasn't for facebook! Facebook has a lot to answer for. Someone should make a law about how people should use facebook and who can comment on what and when and if they have to agree and if you don't like it, you have to say something else because it's all about me Me MEEEEEEEE!

[Aliantha]

I had a disagreement with a friend on facebook this week about vaccination (no I don't want to argue about it here) We sorted it out and made our amends out in the open, and then her father jumped in to defend his daughter who didn't need defending anyway.

Talk about a tail poster

[xoxoxoBruce]

Wrong, I didn't just grab the headline about keeping perverts out, as a matter of fact I knew there was backlash against NC before I knew exactly what they did. I did know whatever it was, like the dozens of state measures going on around the country, it didn't affect me as my chances of returning to NC are between slim and none. But instead of puffing up with righteous indignation and ineffectually heaping scorn upon them, I tried to figure out how this stupid thing happened.