North Carolina passed House Bill 2 (PDF) last month in a special session. It kicked off a nation-wide debate regarding the civil rights of transgender people because it includes provisions requiring transgender people to use multi-stall restrooms that align with their gender at birth. Some companies from outside the state have halted planned expansions because of the law. Many groups have canceled scheduled conventions in the state. For the state to pass a law that is so unpopular far beyond its borders, the use of restrooms by transgender people must be a major problem in North Carolina, right? Well, it turns out, not so much.
Gov. Pat McCrory defended the law, saying it “was to ensure that expectation of privacy would remain in our high schools and our universities and our community colleges.” However, the president of the University of North Carolina told chancellors that it could endanger the system’s federal funding and hurt alumni giving and recruitment efforts. But the law will have no impact on expectation of privacy.
Long before HB 2 was enacted, people with XY chromosomes who identify as women were already using the women’s restrooms. None of the other women in the restrooms ever had any idea that the women they were sharing it with were born boys because transgender women typically try to look like women. And people with XX chromosomes who identify as men were using the men’s restrooms without any of the other men in the restrooms having any idea that the men they were sharing it with were born girls.
But consider what will happen if a transgender person complies with HB 2 instead. Take the case of a college student with XX chromosomes who has had sex change surgeries and is receiving testosterone therapy. He has a beard and a deep voice. He has a hairy chest but no breasts. His vulva has been surgically transformed to a penis. Yet because he was born a girl, the law would require him to use the women’s locker room. Or imagine a woman with XY chromosomes. She looks and dresses much more like other women than like a man. But because she was born a boy, she would be required to use the men’s restroom. Do these situations really seem like the best way to deal with transgender use of restrooms?
HB 2 is a solution for something that was not a problem. As you would expect, all it does is create problems. Since the status quo ante wasn’t harming anyone, North Carolina should have just left things as they were. Let people use whichever restroom they’re most comfortable using. What harm could it really cause?
The Progressive Zone 