Editorial: North Caroline whiffs on transgender bathroom law; what will tech do?

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North Carolina grudgingly repealed its “transgender bathroom bill” Thursday under the threat of losing billions of dollars in business from companies and particularly from sports teams. But anyone who cares about human rights — and that’s what we’re talking about here — should reject this attempt to feign enlightenment.

The new bill makes it clear that the North Carolina Legislature still views equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans as, at best, suspect and, at worst, wrong.

But that lawmakers did anything at all shows the power of good people speaking up. So let’s keep it up, with words and dollars, until LGBT athletes, employees and travelers can go to Charlotte or Raleigh without fear of being treated as something less than other Americans.

And so that other states get the message.

The original HR 2 required transgender individuals to use restrooms based on the gender on their birth certificates — a hurtful law based on zero evidence of problems in schools or anywhere else. The law also overrode non-discrimination laws passed by local communities, and the new one keeps the Legislature in control of those laws until at least 2020 — a moratorium on equality that leaves the LGBT community at risk.

North Carolina touched a nerve with its bathroom law, but 28 other states still allow discrimination against LGBT Americans in housing, health care and other areas. And the Trump administration is unlikely to defend LGBT rights as the Obama administration did. It’s really up to the private sector.

This is what brought former Attorney General Eric Holder and other representatives of the Gill Foundation, which fights for LGBT equality, to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation recently to speak to donors and — this is important — to valley executives about how they can help.

The transgender bathroom issue exploded into what Gill representatives call “transpanic,” potentially inflaming anti-LGBT sentiment. Holder’s main message was that tech can help in this fight.

It helped in North Carolina. Paypal dropped plans for a corporate center with 400 jobs. Executives of the lion’s share of technology companies joined bankers, retailers and airlines in protesting the law and warning that it would affect their business decisions.

But tech has, Holder says, a still largely untapped power. The sector’s egalitarian policies, if anything, have increased prosperity. CEOs can get the word out.

But it can’t be just about what’s good for business.

“I really think, at base, this is a moral issue,” Holder said. “This is a question of what kind of nation we’re going to be. … It’s a question about who we are as a people.”

Don’t look to North Carolina for the answer.

ONLINE EXTRA: A video of former Attorney General Eric Holder discussing LGBT rights with Mercury News Editorial Page Editor Barbara Marshman is attached to this editorial at http://ift.tt/2nTL6yX .

 

 

via NAIJA Society
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