CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, April 13, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has issued new executive orders in an attempt to clarify a state law that forbade Charlotte from allowing biological males to use women's restrooms, locker rooms, and shower facilities.
Charlotte passed a city ordinance allowing anyone who says he identifies as transgender to use the intimate facilities of his choice, even if it does not correspond to his biological sex.
Gov. McCrory, a former mayor of the city, called a special session of the state legislature to pass the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act (HB2), striking the ordinance down – a move that generated intense pressure from a coalition of LGBT activists and corporate business leaders to reverse the move at once.
“I have come to the conclusion that there is a great deal of misinformation, misinterpretation, confusion, a lot of passion and frankly, selective outrage and hypocrisy, especially against the great state of North Carolina,” Gov. McCrory said.
His executive order states that North Carolina is committed to implementing all policies for state employees “fairly and equitably, without unlawful discrimination, harassment or retaliation on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity age, political affiliation, genetic information, or disability.”
While it leaves in place the provision restricting restroom use to one's biological sex, it says that state “agencies may make reasonable accommodations upon a person’s request due to special circumstances” and encourages localities to “make a similar accommodation when practicable.”
His action failed to mollify LGBT political organizations, who continue to demand the full repeal of the law.
“Governor McCrory’s Executive Order is a weak attempt to diffuse the backlash against the General Assembly’s passing and his signing of HB 2,” said Nathan Smith, the director of public policy at GLSEN, an LGBT activist group that advocates teaching “fisting” to middle school students. “Instead, the Governor is attempting to distract the public by offering minor protections for the state’s lesbian, gay and bisexual employees and completely hollow ‘protections’ for the state’s transgender employees, who will still not be able to access restrooms in their workplaces.”
The state chapter of the ACLU said in a statement that the executive order “will only strengthen our resolve to fight back against this discriminatory and misguided legislative action.”
Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat running against McCrory for governor, tweeted:
.@PatMcCroryNC's executive order is a day late and a veto short. Read my full statement here: pic.twitter.com/8LksJFW9tX
— Roy Cooper (@RoyCooperNC) April 12, 2016
Cooper has said he will not defend the law in court.
“The Left's response to Governor McCrory's executive order shows it has no interest in a 'live and let live' policy, and could care less about the commonsense privacy concerns of parents and families throughout North Carolina, even when it comes to the question of letting grown men use women's bathrooms and locker rooms,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “The ACLU and their allies' objections show they will stop at nothing short of forcing people to accept their radical agenda. All people deserve human dignity and respect, but that doesn't mean the government should force people to violate their deeply-held views on sexuality or their expectation of privacy in shared restrooms.”
The new order came after a massive backlash from more than 130 businesses, including threatened boycotts by Disney and Marvel Studios.
Deutsche Bank announced Tuesday it would not go forward with an expansion that would have brought 250 jobs to North Carolina.
PayPal also opted not to open a global operations center in Charlotte, although the online pay service does business with regimes that execute homosexuals. Rev. Franklin Graham said that dichotomy earned PayPal the “hypocrite of the year award.”
