This past week has shown both the ugly and good sides of America.  First the ugly.  Sate legislators in two states passed laws that had no purpose other than to discriminate against LGBTQ people, or protect those that do.  In Georgia, it was in the form of a religious freedom bill.  This on its face oriented religious organizations from having to do anything against their beliefs.  That is fine and dandy, and that is already federal law.  It also extended the protections to anyone acting on their religious beliefs.  That is the issue.  It gives clear cover for anyone to discriminate against anyone, say it was their sincerely held beliefs, and not be held accountable.

In North Carolina, an equally distasteful bill was passed.  Here it was done in the name of a standard and unified legal standard across the state when it comes to non-discrimination bills.  It also added in a bit requiring everyone to user the bathroom of the sex that is on your birth certificate.  Again, on the face this is reasonable.  In reality though, it also is promoting discrimination as this strips away any protections that a LGBTQ person has in any of the more progressive areas of the state.  It also stripped away protections for many others like veterans.  This is all in the name of uniformity throughout the state.  

The bathroom part though is more reprehensible.  Let's be honest here, prior to this bill, someone that was transgender would very likely go into the bathroom of the sex that the physically looked like.  The vast majority of people would never even know. Now they are required to go into the bathrooms of their biological sex, unless they were fortunate enough to get their birth certificate changed.  This means we will now have people that look Like men in the woman's room, and vice versa.  It also means that these people will be forced to our themselves as trans, and that will open then up to all sorts of hate crimes.  Yes, I get the idea that you don't want men in the woman's room, but you just made it law that some men have to use the woman's room!  The best we can hold for here is the increase of unisex bathrooms.

So that's the ugly.  The good us coming from the business community.  A large number of corporations have sent the message to Georgia's governor that they will pull out because of this hurting the state economically.  The governor has now said he won't sign the bill.  In North Carolina though, this passed and was signed all within a single day of a special session.  There was no time to build a corporate backlash against it.  It is building, and the state is getting pressure.  There is also at least one lawsuit filed.  I pray the state gets the message and reverses course, but I doubt it will unless the courts order it to, out there are major protests by business and people.

It should be obvious that I am disgusted over this.  It's a repeat of what happened to the blacks after reconstruction.  The same tactics, and I am sure eventually the same results.  We all need to join in this fight to protect those that are being discriminated against. As Harvey Milk pointed out, when people can put a face on the issue, they are more likely to be supportive.  This requires all of us to be open and honest about ourselves, be we gay, bi, or straight, cis or trans gender, monogamous or polyamourous, mainstream or alternative religions... We also must remember, and promote that yes, the first amendment protects your speech also protects mine, but it does not protect you from the consequences of the speech.  You are also given freedom of religion, but so am I, and we can do as we please until our actions impinge on another person's freedom.  Let's work together though to eliminate this discrimination.