Heartbreak After North Carolina's Disgraceful GOP Continued a Campaign Against Trans People
Heartbreak After North Carolina's Disgraceful GOP Continued a Campaign Against Trans People
Chase Strangio
Medium (via Truth-Out)
On Monday, Governor-elect Roy Cooper and elected officials in the City of Charlotte announced a "deal" whereby the City of Charlotte would repeal its non-discrimination ordinance that protected LGBT people from discrimination and, in turn, the North Carolina General Assembly would convene another special session to repeal HB2. From the outset this deal was problematic as it only legitimized the North Carolina General Assembly's faulty narrative that HB2 was a necessary reaction to a basic set of legal protections enacted by the City of Charlotte.
From the start of the special session at 10 A.M. on Wednesday morning, it was clear that the North Carolina GOP was playing games. First, lawmakers claimed that the special session was unconstitutional because they had convened too many special sessions. They are, after all, the party that convened a special session to pass HB2 in March and then convened another session shortly after the gubernatorial election to strip incoming Democratic governor Roy Cooper of power. Selectively concerned with rules, process and democracy, the party appears to follow one basic principle which is to maintain its own power and repress the power and diminish the survival opportunities of the state's most vulnerable and targeted communities.
A lot happened over the course of the day but in the end nothing really happened. The North Carolina GOP spent most of the day on recess. The House barely convened at all. In the Senate, leadership introduced a partial repeal that would have put a "moratorium" on the passage of new non-discrimination ordinances for a period of six-months. What Senator Phil Berger kept referring to as "cooling off period" -- like a "time out" for the jurisdictions so bold as to believe in protecting their residents from discrimination. It was a farce and in the end no repeal was passed. It was another day of taxpayer dollars wasted, of trans people demonized, of the government of North Carolina acting to instill fear and distrust about the existence of trans people in public space. HB2 is still intact. Charlotte's ordinance is gone.
For my beloved trans community, I want to say this:
1. Stay.
2. You are loved, perfect, beautiful, and magical just as you are.
3. The lawmakers in North Carolina who are targeting your bodies and souls will not win.
4. We are challenging HB2 in court and we will fight every proposed bill like it. When we lose, we will keep fighting.
5. Trans people come from a long line of resisters and dreamers and builders -- particularly the trans women and femmes of color who have been leading survival movements for generations. Draw strength and vision from those that came before us.
6. Your bodies are not a threat to anyone.
7. Your gender is yours and it is real.
8. I love you.
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