Countless musicians and music acts have canceled performances and tour dates in the “great” state of North Carolina, and for a good reason. That reason is the passing of House Bill Two.
House Bill Two, otherwise known as HB2, states that people must use the restroom that coincides with the sex written on their birth certificate. The passing of this law requires transgender men to use the women’s restroom and transgender women to use the men’s restroom. Even if the individual has received gender reassignment surgery, they must follow the newly passed law. By allowing this bill to pass, the lawmakers of North Carolina have now subjected transgender people of their state to potential ridicule, harassment, violence and even rape. The very process of passing this bill is downright discriminatory.
Now, why should this anger you? Most people see the act of using the bathroom as a basic, simple, human need. Most people use the restroom several times a day, and some of those times are in a public restroom. This bill strips away people’s identities; it strips people of living authentically as themselves that they always knew they were. How would you feel if you were being denied use of the restroom you knew in your heart you belonged in just because of who you are?
While typing this, all I can think of is a scene in the revolutionary show “Transparent” when Maura (who is transgender) goes to the women’s restroom with her daughters at the mall. Without spoiling the scene, it was met with hateful remarks from a closed-minded individual, and it left Maura mentally scarred. Maura is always going to remember that traumatic moment in her life, the psychological effects this event will have on Maura will forever give her anxiety about using a public restroom.
This should anger you. Sixty years ago, we were dealing with a ginormous discriminatory issue in our nation’s history: segregation. This is when we had separate restrooms, restaurants, courtrooms and, well, separate everything for black people. There was a white’s only restroom and a black’s only restroom, and if you didn’t follow those rules you were punished. Making people use a separate bathroom for simply being different, for being who they were, for being a skin color that wasn’t white is looked at in 2016 as being incredibly ridiculous. We look back at that moment in history and can’t believe how narrow-minded lawmakers were and how discriminatory they were. Fifty years from now, our descendants will look at America and wonder “What were they thinking?” We should be angry we are letting lawmakers openly and publicly express their discrimination toward a group of people they see as a “threat.”
These politicians don’t seem to understand that transgender people are not a threat. They believe that by allowing them to freely use the restroom they belong in, they are going to violate others, expose themselves to innocent bystanders, rape people, and that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Imagine if you have a transgender woman who has to use the men’s room: She is at a higher risk of violence and rape and these politicos do not see this. Where do these people stop? What’s next? Will they stop gay people from using the bathroom due to the fact they are attracted to the same sex? That last question has already happened. A lesbian woman was minding her own business waiting in line to use a stall in a public restroom. She was escorted out of the restroom by security for the sole reason they didn’t think she was in the proper restroom.
All of these reasons are why you should be angry and bothered by North Carolina and its hateful laws. Please think of the damage this is doing to our nation, our country, our America. By expressing our opinions and sharing our voice we can let the lawmakers and politicians who represent us know we will not stand for this clearly laid out discrimination.
