In the wake of two more black men shot and killed by police, the pressure is on Pat McCrory to keep his word about public accountability and transparency. As this excellent column in The Technician explains, the integrity of our state hangs in the balance.
As a long-time supporter of public education who has followed the far right's efforts to privatize education in North Carolina, I was a low-level participant in the Teachers March on Raleigh. I drove a support car, carrying water, fruit, protein bars and band aids, and accompanied one line of the teachers as they marched to Raleigh on Tuesday and Wednesday. I watched them struggle through the heat and humidity, slogging up hills, wiping away sweat. All they talked about for all that time was taking care of their kids.
HIGH POINT, N.C. — Parrish Clodfelter, a 79-year-old retiree who lives on a central North Carolina farm, professes opinions about transgender people that might get him fired if he worked for a multinational corporation, though for many here, they constitute simple country wisdom.
“A man wants to change to a woman, he’s got a mental problem,” Mr. Clodfelter said on Wednesday over lunch at Spiro’s Family Restaurant, where posters by the door advertised classes on carrying concealed weapons and a “Hillbilly Sunday” Pentecostal church service.
Facing the onslaught of a corporate backlash against Hate Bill 2, Pat McCrory today attempted to undo the damage. His "executive order" doesn't mean jack in the grand scheme of things.
In response to McCrory's order, ACLU of North Carolina Acting Executive Director Sarah Preston said "Gov. McCrory's actions today are a poor effort to save face after his sweeping attacks on the LGBT community, and they fall far short of correcting the damage done when he signed into law the harmful House Bill 2, which stigmatizes and mandates discrimination against gay and transgender people. With this executive order, LGBT individuals still lack legal protections from discrimination, and transgender people are still explicitly targeted by being forced to use the wrong restroom."
Apparently HB 2 is not a big deal. Though from a discussion perspective, it has set North Carolina on fire. We only have to look at the comments section of statewide (television) online news sources for confirmation. More importantly, articles from the state’s largest newspapers.
Don't get distracted by #peegate. Because while the transgender elements of McCrory's Madness are certainly egregious, there are many more things not to like. Reframing is in order, and a good place to start is with this Charlotte Magazine article.
Latest reader comments