It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On a day like this, the people who helped make this bullshit become law should be burning in hell. Or at least kicked out of office.

The NBA is going to pull the All Star game out, the NFL will no doubt strike down any Pro Bowl/Super Bowl considerations, ditto for the NHL. They can also kiss anything new corporate keeping or taking up residence.

It looks bad now but these people are on the wrong side of history with no leg to stand on and if they don't get their shit together they are all going to seriously regret this.

Remember when Arizona struck down a law making Martin Luther King Day a holiday? They almost lost their statehood and boy, weren't they quick to call an emergency meeting and reverse it.

I hadn't heard about the Arizona thing. I really shouldn't be surprised at this point, but I kind of am.

As for the NC law, even if the anti-trans bullshit and the stripping of anti-discrimination measures across the board gets tossed out, the bullshit about preventing county and city governments from, say, changing their minimum wage won't automatically get struck down as well. Given that the cost of living in NC skyrockets dramatically if you happen to live in the bigger cities like Charlotte or Raleigh.

I do hope that this shit gets chucked out, but I am not holding my breath for a speedy resolution. In the meantime, caution is warranted. I'm not affected by the bathroom bollocks, but some people close to me are. I know that people's reaction to trans people has been bad before, but in a state that just passed a law legitimizing that kind of prejudice, date night with one person in particular has gotten a whole hell of a lot scarier. Hoping that things don't get bad enough here that I need to start carrying; those fucking things give me the willies.

Tale a look at the guy in the picture here:
http://www.upworthy.com/heres-what-itll-look-like-if-trans-people-arent-allowed-to-use-the-right-bathroom

Or the guy picktured here:
https://twitter.com/_michaelhughes1/status/713102950877388800

Because of this new law, these two guys, if on state-owned property, are required to use the woman's rooms if they have to go.

(For anyone who can't see either picture, these people are clearly men, complete with obvious facial hair.) I tend not to travel, but if I did, this sort of law is bad enough to make me not want to even travel through North Carolina.

Thanks for posting this topic, by the way!

I almost didn't. Was hoping that someone else would do it, meaning I would be off the hook. I don't like talking about politics on the best of days, but this was too close to home to ignore.

But yeah, North Carolina is a great place to visit when our politicians aren't making the rest of us facepalm.

As to the pictures... yeah, I think that John Oliver put it best when talking about Michael Hughes.

It will. Georgia is considering another similar bill and as soon as they announced it Coca Cola intimated they would relocate if it passed. Ever been to Georgia? They have peaches and Coke! XD I would literally fry their economy if they left. Also GOTG 2 is currently filming there and the director said he didn't care if they were right in the middle of scene, if the bill passed they were packing up and leaving.

Also, see this article which also helps illustrate how ridiculous this new law is.

http://chapelboro.com/columns/aaron-keck/think-youve-got-what-it-takes-to-enforce-house-bill-2-take-this-easy-quiz

This whole thing is beyond ridiculous. I mean, do they think there's some kind of forcefield that keeps men out of women's bathrooms now?

I say, make lockable gender-neutral bathrooms and be done with it. If some people can't keep their fingers out of who is peeing where, let's just stop trying to make arbitrary and unenforceable rules about bathrooms all together, because good grief there are more important things for legislators to be worried about.

Sadly, the bathrooms are only a small part of it. But yeah, this law is a hot mess. Preaching to the choir, friend. I am sorely tempted to print those photos out to show to people to demonstrate the problem with those provisions in the law.

Yup: http://variety.com/2016/biz/news/disney-marvel-boycott-georgia-anti-gay-bill-1201737405/

...and it looks like they'll suffer fallout from more than just the film industry too:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/north-carolinas-controversial-anti-lgbt-bill-explained/story?id=37898153 No, but they immediately think that transgender male = potential child molester and rapist. And it's the word "potential" that they always bandy about as justification. That it *could* happen to you.

Just like how any Muslim you meet *could* be a Radical Islamist/Jihadist Terrorist. And Planned Parenthood *could* be harvesting babies for body parts. It's all about fear. Fear makes money. Fear gets people elected. And fear gives people more control.

All you need is a convenient minority you can train your sights on with relative impunity.

This is why I wish I could send a reminder that the USA is a republic, and not a Democracy, and that means the leader doesn't have to put up with this bullshit.

Of course, I'm also the sort that would liquidate congress and instead have the Cabinet as my council and make a US ID that supplants all forms of state ID, to get around those pesky voter ID laws.

I'd also push the GOP into a wood chipper and introduce new parties while reminding everyone that the republic is about Progress, and if they don't want progress, then fine. Leave the cozy protection of the USA.

Lions may be cruel and unusual, but working in a Chinese Sweatshop for a few weeks on the same salary they suffer under while your estate is audited for financial or other anomalies? That's just perfectly fine or we would have had a long talk with China.

Sadly, our supreme court is currently hung no thanks to the same party that refuses to take an appointment to even have a hearing on a justice. Obstructionist twats.

Are you cool with Citizens United, then? If not, you have some cognitive dissonance to overcome.

And no, I'm not defending this law.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/us/politics/joe-biden-argued-for-delaying-supreme-court-picks-in-1992.html

What a ridiculous false statement. At NO point was Arizona's "statehood" in question over the decisions by Arizona voters to approve or reject Propositions concerning a holiday honoring MLK Jr. At NO point was there any "emergency meeting" which reversed anything. In fact, Arizona voters approved a state MLK holiday in the November 1992 referendum, which made it the ONLY state to put it to a vote of the people and have it pass.

Perhaps you should stop typing now.