TRANSGENDER BATHROOM LAWS NOT TRUMP'S PRIORITY (CHARLOTTE, NC)

TRANSGENDER BATHROOM LAWS NOT TRUMP'S PRIORITY FOR AMERICA (CHARLOTTE):

NOR IS TRUMP TRYING TO TURN ALL BLACK MEN GAY.


Sources: ABC News, The Economist, Charlotte Observer, YouTube


**** The Trump administration reverses guidelines on transgender bathrooms


But presidents cannot change the law and it is up to courts to enforce it

ON February 22nd, the Trump administration announced it would withdraw its predecessor’s guidelines regarding the accommodation of transgender students in America’s government-funded schools.

Sean Spicer, Donald Trump’s press secretary, said that the president had “made it clear throughout the campaign that he’s a firm believer in states’ rights”. Issues like transgender bathroom access, he added, “are not best dealt with at the federal level".

The move has disheartened liberals and cheered conservatives, but its impact is likely to be more limited than either side expects.

Nine months ago, officials from the education and justice departments officials sent a letter and 25-page instructional pamphlet to school districts across the country.

The message was simple:

America’s schools should permit transgender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

In the face of new laws in North Carolina and other states imposing a biological test on bathroom access, the Obama administration noted that “the desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students.”

This principle, it added, is “consistently recognised in civil rights cases”.

Thirteen states immediately challenged the letter in court. Days before the school year began last autumn, a federal district judge issued a nationwide injunction barring its enforcement.

The Obama administration, Reed O’Connor ruled, had not followed appropriate procedures before offering its interpretation of Title VII and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and how those provisions bear on the protections due to transgender students.

Mr O'Connor confirmed in October 2016 that his order against Mr Obama’s transgender policy applied not just in the 13 states that brought the challenge but to every school district in the country.

Later that month, the Supreme Court agreed to consider the case of Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy now in his final semester at a Virginia high school that will not permit him to use the boy’s bathroom. Mr Grimm’s complaint is set for argument at the court on March 28th.

Civil-rights groups and left-leaning politicians reacted with dismay to Mr Trump’s change of policy.

A representative from the American Civil Liberties Union said the move “shows that the president’s promise to protect LGBT rights was just empty rhetoric”.

Maura Healey, the attorney-general for Massachusetts, wrote that Mr Trump “is sending a message that discrimination is acceptable”. Dick Durbin, a Democratic senator from Illinois, called it “a major setback in the fight for civil rights”. Conservatives, meanwhile, are cheering the about-face.

Gary McCaleb, a lawyer at the right-wing Alliance Defending Freedom, said, “No longer will federal officials distort federal law that is meant to equalise educational opportunities for women, and no longer will they force local officials to intermingle boys and girls within private areas like locker rooms, showers, hotel rooms on school trips, and restrooms".

Two considerations should temper reactions on both sides. First, Mr Trump’s change of policy is not a wholesale reversal of Mr Obama’s stance on trans rights; it is, instead, a withdrawal pending further consideration.

The “Dear colleague” letter issued on February 23rd criticises the May 2016 missive, along with another guidance letter from January 2015, in brief and general terms: “These guidance documents do not...contain extensive legal analysis or explain how the position is consistent with the express language of Title IX”.

It then briefly recounts the litigation battle over bathrooms, noting the legal dispute over whether discrimination against transgender people amounts to “sex” discrimination. But Mr Trump’s letter does not itself stake out a definitive claim:

The government “has decided to withdraw and rescind” Mr Obama’s guidance, it reads, “in order to further and more completely consider the legal issues involved”.

And the letter closes by affirming that protections are still in place against “discrimination, bullying and harassment” and that “all students, including LGBT students” deserve to attend schools where they “are able to learn and thrive in a safe environment”.

This rather conciliatory closing, along with the lack of a full-throated condemnation of Mr Obama’s position, may owe something to squabbling inside the White House over the move: it appears that Betsy DeVos, the new Education secretary, opposed the change but bowed to the demands of Jeff Sessions, the attorney-general, after Mr Trump intervened.

So Mr Trump’s change of policy is quite a bit softer, both in tone and content, than it might have been.

A second factor mitigates the significance of the change still further: whatever a president’s spin on civil-rights law may be, the law itself remains the same. “With or without guidance”, the National Women’s Law Centre tweeted yesterday, “Title IX is still the law of the land & schools still have an obligation to protect trans students.” Many states have already adopted transgender-friendly policies in their schools.

States that do not offer adequate accommodations will face lawsuits, and it will be up the courts—not the executive branch—to interpret and enforce the law.

MCCORY TO REPEAL HB2 AFTER CHARLOTTE LEADERS REPEAL LGBT BATHROOM SHARING ORDINANCE

GOV MCCORY TO REPEAL HB2 AFTER CHARLOTTE LEADERS REPEAL LGBT BATHROOM SHARING ORDINANCE:

CHARLOTTE'S MAYOR JENNIFER ROBERTS WANTED TO HELP HILLARY BUT IT BACKFIRED.

CHARLOTTE'S POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED LGBT BATHROOM ORDINANCE WAS ONLY FORCED ON PRIVATE BUSINESSES & PRIVATE SCHOOLS NOT PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

THUS THE REASON WHY GOV MCCRORY SIGNED HB2 INTO LAW IN THE FIRST PLACE.

CHARLOTTE'S BATHROOM SHARING ORDINANCE WAS ABOUT 2016 POLITICS NOT DISCRIMINATION.


Sources: CBS News, Charlotte Observer, YouTube


****** Gov. Pat McCrory calls for special legislative session Wednesday to repeal HB2


Following a surprise move by Charlotte City Council on Monday, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory has called for a special session Wednesday to consider repeal of House Bill 2.

The governor’s statement came in a series of rapidly unfolding events that could signal an end to the nine-month drama that has catapulted North Carolina into national headlines. HB2, seen by critics as an anti-LGBT measure, prompted boycotts and cost the state millions of dollars as well as lost jobs.

Monday’s events also underscored the continuing tensions between Republican lawmakers and Democratic Gov.-elect Roy Cooper.

McCrory’s call came hours after Charlotte City Council voted 10-0, with the support of Cooper and Democratic Mayor Jennifer Roberts, to rescind the LGBT ordinance that prompted HB2.

“This sudden reversal, with little notice after the gubernatorial election has ended, sadly proves this entire issue, originated by the political left, was all about politics at the expense of Charlotte and the entire state of North Carolina,” McCrory said in a video statement.

Cooper, who lobbied for the council action, announced earlier that GOP legislative leaders had promised to repeal HB2.

“Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore assured me that as a result of Charlotte’s vote, a special session will be called for Tuesday to repeal HB2 in full,” Cooper said in a statement. “I hope they will keep their word to me and with the help of Democrats in the legislature, HB2 will be repealed in full.”

In a joint statement of their own, Berger and Moore said politics was behind the council vote.

“Today Roy Cooper and Jennifer Roberts proved what we said was the case all along: their efforts to force men into women’s bathrooms and shower facilities was a political stunt to drive out-of-state money into the governor’s race,” the Republican leaders said. “For months, we’ve said if Charlotte would repeal its bathroom ordinance that created the problem, we would take up the repeal of HB2.”.



This is the third time such an offer has been floated.

First in May and then in September there were efforts to get the council to rescind the ordinance that extended anti-discrimination protection to the LGBT community and allowed transgender people to use the public bathroom of the gender with which they identify.

Most council members never went along with the deal.

Since then Cooper defeated McCrory in a hard-fought race that wasn’t settled until McCrory conceded Dec. 5 as a recount entered its final hours.



Late-night lobbying

Council’s Monday morning vote came after late-night lobbying by Cooper himself. He called Democratic Mayor Pro Tem Vi Lyles at 10 p.m. Sunday and Democrat Julie Eiselt a half-hour later.

He said “if we cleaned up our books, that the General Assembly was motivated to call a special session to repeal (the law), and we felt this was our best opportunity,” Eiselt told the Observer.

Cooper and others believe that the best chance to repeal HB2 is this month before new legislators take office in January.

Roberts and council members had considered a similar deal earlier in the year but had rejected it.

Roberts on Monday was in the difficult position of defending the repeal. The vote “should in no way be viewed as a compromise of our principles or commitment to nondiscrimination,” she said.

But earlier this year, and as recently as last week, the mayor said that LGBT rights weren’t negotiable. Local and national gay rights organizations had adamantly opposed a symbolic repeal vote. The Human Rights Campaign said earlier this month that there should be no compromise between the city and the state.

But Monday they applauded the city’s move.

“HB2 is precisely why North Carolinians went to the polls and ousted Gov. McCrory last month,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “It’s time for state lawmakers to repeal HB2 and begin repairing the harm this bill has done to people and the damage it has done to North Carolina’s reputation and economy.”

State Rep. Chris Sgro, a Guilford County Democrat who is president of Equality NC, said earlier this month that he opposed any compromise.

“I firmly believe that Roy Cooper, Jennifer Roberts and the majority of City Council are committed to winning the full complement (of rights) for LGBT people both in Charlotte and across the state,” he said Monday. “All eyes …are on Raleigh watching for the General Assembly to do the right thing.”

Republican council member Kenny Smith, who is considering running for mayor, said the Democratic-controlled council was “playing politics” with the decision. He said the same deal has been available for months, but that council members waited until McCrory lost the election.

State GOP Chairman Robin Hayes agreed. He said the Charlotte ordinance was “never more than a nakedly partisan political weapon aimed at sabotaging Gov. McCrory’s re-election bid, while inflicting economic suffering on the people of North Carolina.”

It’s unclear how a vote to repeal HB2 would go. Democratic votes are virtually assured. Many Republicans remain in support of the bill.

“Lawmakers shouldn’t now betray those who supported them and compromise common sense principles, like privacy, dignity, and freedom for all citizens,” Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the N.C. Values Coalition, said. “To do so would be to advance the Obama administration’s agenda, not freedom and common sense.”

A ‘reset’

The city’s repeal includes language that says its nondiscrimination ordinance will be revived if the General Assembly doesn’t repeal HB2 by Dec. 31.

Republican council member Ed Driggs said he’s worried legislators will see that deadline as Charlotte dictating to Raleigh. He proposed that the Dec. 31 deadline be removed, but his motion failed.

Some business leaders were surprised but happy at the news. Maxwell Hanks, a broker with Spectrum Properties leasing the new 300 South Tryon office building, said HB2 has been hurting business recruitment in the state

“Rescinding HB2 will be a great way to close out 2016 and start 2017,” said Hanks. He said the move would be a “reset,” and that it would help him and other brokers lure companies to move to the state.

There was no advance notice that the ordinance would be discussed at the City Council meeting. The city charter allows the manager or mayor to place any item on the agenda – even without public notice first. Democrat James Mitchell made the motion to vote on the matter and Smith seconded.

Roberts said voters’ feelings about the issue have been known and voiced. But when the issue was last discussed, many in the LGBT community urged the city not to repeal the ordinance.

“The community always has a chance to weigh in,” Roberts said. “There will be much more conversations about equality.”

Lyles said council members would try in 2017 to pass some LGBT protections, though it’s unclear what they would be.

It’s possible the state might allow Charlotte to pass legal protections for gay and lesbian individuals in places of public accommodation, but any new ordinance that allowed transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity would likely be rejected again by legislators.

Some Democratic council members have long said they don’t want to “leave the transgender community behind.” But if there are future protections, the city will likely be forced to do just that.

Democratic council member John Autry said Monday’s vote turned his stomach. But he said he decided to support the compromise after talking with one of his daughters, who is gay.

He said she told him that the city’s vote was the best thing to do “in the long run.”

Democratic council member Patsy Kinsey didn’t attend the meeting.

A special session on Wednesday would come five days after lawmakers completed another special session in which they passed measures taking away many of the new governor’s appointment powers.

By itself, Charlotte’s move will not have any immediate impact on the status of lawsuits against HB2 by the federal government and the American Civil Liberties Union, among other groups.

UNC law professor Maxine Eichner, an expert in LGBT matters, said if the General Assembly follows through with the removal of HB2, the opposing sides in the court fights could both ask that the cases be dropped. Or the courts could rule that the lawsuits are now moot.

GOV PAT MCCRORY MEETS WITH TRUMP IN NYC (JOB OFFER?)

GOV PAT MCCRORY MEETS WITH TRUMP IN NYC:

IS IT A FIRM JOB OFFER OR ADVISORY ROLE OFFER?


Sources: Herald Online, YouTube


***** NC Gov. McCrory arrives for meeting with Trump in New York


North Carolina’s outgoing Republican Gov. Pat McCrory arrived Wednesday morning at Trump Tower in New York City to meet with President-elect Donald Trump.

McCrory, who earlier this week conceded in a close re-election bid for a second term as governor, could be under consideration for a Cabinet position in Trump’s administration.

Trump’s transition team had announced McCrory’s visit Tuesday morning. McCrory’s spokespeople have not commented on the meeting.

It’s unclear what McCrory and Trump plan to speak about. The two men saw each other in North Carolina Tuesday night as Trump made a stop in Fayetteville as part of his nationwide “Thank You” tour.

As McCrory was sitting down with Trump, the president-elect’s transition team told reporters the governor’s track record on education and regulatory reforms had caught Trump’s attention.

Transition officials said McCrory had succeeded in North Carolina in eliminating burdensome regulations in order to promote economic growth and job creation.

They also pointed to McCrory’s background on energy issues, mentioning that he had opened North Carolina up to fracking through the Energy Modernization Act in 2014.

McCrory’s private sector experience includes a long career at Duke Energy.

“There is a very good rapport between the president-elect and Governor McCrory,” Trump spokesman Jason Miller told reporters Wednesday morning. “Governor McCrory is someone who the president-elect had the chance to get to know pretty well on the campaign trail this year.”

The 60-year-old governor and former city of Charlotte mayor arrived at Trump Tower just after 10 a.m. Wednesday. McCrory did not speak to reporters on his way to the building’s elevators.

Just before McCrory’s arrival, Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, entered the building. Also at Trump Tower around the same time was Eric Trump and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat.

Miller said McCrory is “someone who’s viewed as a reformer” and “a very solutions-oriented leader.”

"Obviously (he is) someone who has a number of good ideas on how we should form this administration, and who is talented in his own right as well,” Miller said.

PAT MCCRORY CONCEDES TO ROY COOPER AFTER HB2 BACKLASH & BACKPEDALING

PAT MCCRORY CONCEDES TO ROY COOPER AFTER HB2 BACKLASH & BACKPEDALING:

MCCRORY DIDN'T LOSE DUE TO PASSAGE OF HB2. IT WAS HIS BACKPEDALING.


Sources: CBS News, Wall Street Journal, YouTube


***** Pat McCrory Concedes North Carolina Governor’s Race to Roy Cooper:

The Republican incumbent had protested the result, but his opponent’s vote lead grew.

RALEIGH, N.C.—Republican Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina conceded his bid for re-election to Democrat Roy Cooper on Monday, ending a monthlong skirmish over the incumbent’s unsubstantiated claims of voting irregularity.

The governor’s race was extremely close, but the tally of absentee and provisional votes drove Mr. Cooper’s lead to more than 10,000 votes, up from about 5,000 votes out of 4.7 million cast in unofficial results on Election Day.

Mr. McCrory’s team had filed protests in dozens of counties, claiming that he was behind in the vote because of fraud.

But local boards of election, dominated by Republicans and appointed by Mr. McCrory, had found no widespread evidence of wrongdoing.

In a video statement, Mr. McCrory said “the majority of our citizens have spoken,” and he congratulated Mr. Cooper, the attorney general, and said he would work to ensure a smooth transition.

The gubernatorial race was an outlier in North Carolina, which elected President-elect Donald Trump, Sen. Richard Burr and other Republicans running statewide for treasurer and lieutenant governor.

But Mr. McCrory lost the state’s two biggest metropolitan areas of Charlotte and Raleigh, both of which he carried in 2012.

Many voters said they disapproved of Mr. McCrory’s championing of a law restricting public bathroom use by transgender people.

Mr. Cooper thanked Mr. McCrory for his service and called for unity after a “divisive election season.” In a statement, he said, “I know there is more that unites us than divides us.”

The governor-elect said his priorities would be investing in schools and supporting working families.

But the GOP still has veto-proof majorities in both houses of the legislature, and his allies say it is likely that he will spend much of his time seeking to block a legislative agenda rather than advance his own.

Mr. McCrory, who was first elected in 2012, had solicited supporters for funds to help pay for legal costs in challenging the results. His team’s allegations of fraud prompted Republicans to pledge to change election laws if necessary when the legislature reconvenes early next year.

Election law has been a contentious topic in North Carolina. Last summer, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a voter ID law and other restrictions passed by the state in 2013, saying they disproportionately affected black voters.

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a separate challenge to North Carolina’s congressional maps, as Democrats say Republicans inappropriately drew districts based on race.

MCCRORY vs LORETTA LYNCH: MCRORY MAY LOSE

MCCRORY vs LORETTA LYNCH: MCRORY MAY LOSE

WHITE MAN vs BLACK WOMAN FOR 2016 POLITICS.

MCRORY STOOD UP AGAINST POLITICAL INTIMIDATION BUT HE MAY HAVE DONE SO TOO LATE.

Sources: Fox News, CNN, Citizen Wells, Youtube

In February 2016, despite wide voter opposition, Charlotte City Council members passed a Transgender Bathroom Sharing Ordinance which only forced Private Businesses, Private Schools (not Public Schools), Churches and Non-Profit agencies to comply.

The Ordinance was due to become effective April 1st.

In March 2016, North Carolina Gov Pat McCory and the NC General Assembly repealed the Charlotte Ordinance via passage of House Bill 2.

Ironically the man who spearheaded passage of Charlotte's Transgender Bathroom Ordinance is an LGBT Advocate who was Convicted of taking Indecent Liberties with a 15-yr old boy on a field trip.

The mainstream media refuses to report on this fact.

In May 2016, GOP North Carolina Gov Pat McCrory is suing the Federal gov't for its overreach in trying to force every state and commonwealth in America to enact laws which order Private Businesses and Churches to allow Transgender people to use Bathroom facilities of their personal choice.

US DOJ Attorney General Loretta Lynch, a Black Woman from North Carolina, claims that denying Transgender people access to use Bathrooms of their choice is a Civil Rights Violation.

In response to Gov McCrory's lawsuit, Loretta Lynch has now countersued the state of North Carolina.

So here we have a Powerful Black Woman from North Carolina fighting a Powerful White Man from North Carolina over Bathrooms for Transgender people during a critical election year.

Unlike Black people, Transgender were not Biologically born Transgender. Instead their sexual orientation is merely a Lifestyle choice.

Millions of US citizens are unemployed, the US Military is lacking in crucial funding for Training so they can defeat ISIL and America's Borders are porous yet Obama has Politicians fighting and wasting US Taxpayer money over Bathrooms for Transgender people.

God Forbid!

I stand with Gov McCrory on HB2, however this public legal battle may indeed cost him re-election.

Why?

Because McCrory sat quietly for too long and then allowed Obama to intentionally drag him into a Cultural Political war for the sole purpose of destroying Pat McCrory's political career forever and for the 2016 election.

I will continue to Pray diligently for Gov McCrory and for the entire United States of America.

**** North Carolina, U.S., square off over transgender rights

(CNN)The United States and North Carolina tangled over transgender rights on Monday, with the Justice Department filing a civil rights lawsuit over the state's so-called bathroom bill and state officials defiantly filing suits against the federal directive to stop the implementation of the controversial legislation.

Also, a major player in North Carolina -- the state's public university system -- defied the governor and legislature and told the Justice Department on Monday it intends to act "in compliance with federal law" as it relates to House Bill 2, known as HB2.

The Justice Department seeks declaratory relief and threatens to curtail federal funding to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina.

With hundreds of millions of dollars in funding at stake, UNC System President Margaret Spellings said longstanding policy prohibits university personnel from discriminating on the basis of, among other things, gender identity, sex, or sexual orientation.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch, announcing the U.S. legal action to reporters on Monday, cast the bathroom bill issue as the latest civil rights struggle of the era.

"It was not so very long ago that states, including North Carolina, had other signs above restrooms, water fountains, and on public accommodations, keeping people out based on a distinction without a difference. We've moved beyond those dark days," Lynch said.

The act bans people from using public bathrooms that do not correspond with their biological sex. Since its passage in March, North Carolina has become a national battleground on the issue of transgender rights. It has drawn a flurry of condemnation from civil liberties groups, LGBT advocates and major businesses. It has also won praise from groups like the Family Research Council.

After the law's passage, musicians Bruce Springsteen, Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, and the bands Pearl Jam and Boston canceled concerts in the state. Those cancellations have cost one major venue nearly $200,000 in ticket sales.

PayPal and Deutsche Bank have both canceled plans to expand into North Carolina.

The Justice Department said last week that "access to sex-segregated restrooms and other workplace facilities consistent with gender identity is a term, condition or privilege of employment. Denying such access to transgender individuals, whose gender identity is different from their gender assigned at birth, while affording it to similarly situated non-transgender employees, violates Title VII," a section of the Civil Rights Act prohibiting discrimination against workers on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion.

The federal government demanded the state "remedy" the act or risk being in violation of federal law. 

Instead, North Carolina officials filed a lawsuit calling the Justice Department's position a "radical reinterpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act." Top state legislators, Phil Berger and Tim Moore, also filed a complaint against the Justice Department.

But Lynch on Monday said the legislature and governor put the state in "direct opposition to federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex and gender identity. More to the point, they created state-sponsored discrimination against transgender individuals who simply seek to engage in the most private of functions in a place of safety and security, a right taken for granted by most of us."

After the federal government asked the state to certify by the end of the day Monday that it would not comply with or implement the bill's restriction on bathroom access, Lynch said the state requested an extension and that had been under "active consideration."

Instead, the governor and the state chose another course: a lawsuit.

"But instead of replying to our offer or providing a certification, this morning, the state of North Carolina and its governor chose to respond by suing the Department of Justice. As a result of their decisions, we are now moving forward," Lynch said.

The federal suit also says the state is in violation of Title IX, the Education Acts Amendment of 1972 that bans gender discrimination in education, and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act that outlaws discrimination on the basis of sex. 

"This action is about a great deal more than bathrooms," Lynch said. "This is about the dignity and the respect that we accord our fellow citizens and the laws that we as a people and as a country have enacted to protect them."

Lynch said there have been "discriminatory responses to historic moments of progress": the Jim Crow laws that followed the Emancipation Proclamation, the resistance to Brown V. Board of Education, and the "proliferation of state bans on same-sex unions that were intended to stifle any hope that gay and lesbian Americans might one day be afforded the right to marry."

"That right, of course, is now recognized as a guarantee embedded in our Constitution. And in the wake of that historic triumph, we have seen bill after bill in state after state taking aim at the LGBT community," she said. 

She told transgender people that the Obama administration "will do everything we can to protect you going forward."

'Not a protected class'

McCrory's communications director Josh Ellis said after Lynch's remarks that the governor is "appropriately seeking legal certainty to a complex issue impacting employers and students throughout the country" but "in contrast, the attorney general is using divisive rhetoric to advance the Obama administration's strategy of making laws that bypass the constitutional authority of Congress and our courts." 

The act puts in place a statewide policy that bans individuals from using public bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex and stops cities from passing anti-discrimination ordinances to protect gay and transgender identity. That power is reserved for the state under the new law. 

North Carolina officials defend the act and said it doesn't violate federal law. The state also said the United States didn't give the state enough time to deal with the matter.

McCrory said Monday that he requested an additional two weeks to respond but was told he would be granted one week, and only if he issued a statement concurring with the Justice Department.

The lawsuit filed by the governor and Public Safety Secretary Frank Perry calls the demand that the state "remedy" the legislation by Monday or risk being in violation of federal law "a baseless and blatant overreach" and said it is making a "radical reinterpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act."

McCrory's argument also said the state of North Carolina hasn't been given enough time to respond and that the federal government is overstepping its authority.

In a Monday news conference, McCrory blamed the city of Charlotte for raising the issue of gender identity and public restrooms. The matter was not on the state's agenda, he said, until the city imposed a mandate that "caused major privacy concerns about males entering female facilities and females entering male facilities."

Because, he said, this is now a national issue -- and could affect every U.S. company with more than 15 employees -- McCrory called on Congress to revisit the anti-discrimination provisions under Titles VII and IX.

"Our nation is one nation, especially when it comes to fighting discrimination, which I wholeheartedly support," McCrory said. 

North Carolina homes in on Title VII in its lawsuit, saying precedence is clear: "Transgender status is not a protected class under Title VII," and it cites a half-dozen cases that it says back its stance. Only Congress can change this, the lawsuit says.

Even if the state felt transgender individuals were afforded federal protection, the Justice Department demands overstep, the state suit says, because the law "allows accommodations based on special circumstances, including but not limited to transgender individuals." 

In a statement announcing the lawsuit, McCrory said the federal government was trying to tell every government agency and company employing more than 15 people "that men should be allowed to use a women's locker room, restroom or shower facility."

He said later that the "new, complex and emotional issue" pitted privacy against equality.

The lawsuit emphasizes that no one is facing discrimination because the law applies equally to everyone.

"All state employees are required to use the bathroom and changing facilities assigned to a person of their same biological sex, regardless of gender identity, or transgender status," it says.

The lawsuit filed by Berger, North Carolina Senate president pro tempore and Moore, state House Speaker, reflected the views of many of the bill's supporters that people "expect to encounter only other people of the same biological sex" when they are in intimate setting such as public bathrooms.

It says the "ideological extremity -- and utter unworkability -- of the department's position on the issues in this case is astonishing." 

NC SUES FEDERAL GOVT BULLIES & DEFENDS U.S. CONSTITUTION (HB2)

@northcarolina

NC SUES FEDERAL GOVT BULLIES & DEFENDS U.S. CONSTITUTION (HB2):

GOV MCCRORY IS PROVEN TO BE A POLITICIAN WITH A REAL BACKBONE.

IT'S NOT ABOUT LGBT DISCRIMINATION, IT'S ABOUT ELIMINATING CIVIL LIBERTIES.

Sources:  The Hill, Fox News, CNN, YouTube

****** North Carolina Sues Federal Gov't Over Bathroom Law

Officials in North Carolina on Monday filed a lawsuit against the federal government in an effort to keep the state's controversial bathroom law in place, according to multiple reports.

The lawsuit comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) told Gov. Pat McCrory (R) that the state's law — which requires transgender people to use the bathroom corresponding to their biological sex — violates the Civil Rights Act. 

The DOJ ordered McCrory to respond by Monday to confirm "that the State will not comply with or implement HB2."

North Carolina's lawsuit against the federal government said the DOJ's position is "baseless and blatant overreach," NBC News reported.

"If the United States desires a new protected class under Title VII, it must seek such action by the United States Congress," the suit said.

McCrory said Sunday that the state was given an "unrealistic" deadline for response, adding that the federal government is "being a bully."

"They gave the ninth-largest state in the United States ... three working days to respond to a pretty complex letter and to a pretty big threat," McCrory said on "Fox News Sunday."

"We don't think three working days is enough to respond to such a threat." 

The North Carolina law, condemned by LGBT rights supporters, also has provisions restricting local governments from enacting their own anti-discrimination legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The DOJ announced that Attorney General Loretta Lynch will announce a "law enforcement action" connected to the state later Monday afternoon.

TARGET CHRISTIAN BOYCOTT GROWS (HRC & PAYPAL'S INTIMIDATION)

@Target

NATIONAL CHRISTIAN BOYCOTT OF TARGET GROWS:

IT'S NOT ABOUT LGBT DISCRIMINATION; IT'S REALLY ABOUT SILENCING CHRISTIANITY FOREVER.

OBAMA'S STRATEGY TO DIVIDE AMERICA FOR 2016 POLITICS SUCCEEDS.

@HB2

Sources: MSN, Fox News, USA Today, Youtube

***** More than 500,000 boycott Target over transgender bathroom policy

A conservative Christian activist group has gained more than half a million signatures and counting from people pledging to boycott Target over its transgender bathroom policy.

The petition started by the American Family Association on Wednesday raises concerns that Target's inclusive stance on transgender rights encourages sexual predators and puts women and young girls in danger, because "a man can simply say he 'feels like a woman today' and enter the women's restroom."

The boycott has more than 503,000 signatures as of Monday morning, marking it as one of AFA's most popular campaigns.

"This is the best response we’ve ever had this quick," says AFA President Tim Wildmon, attributing the protest's viral nature to the fact that "everybody knows who Target is, and it’s an easy-to-understand issue." 

Wildmon says Target stands "to lose a lot of customers who won't come back." But Target is standing by its policy.

"We certainly respect that there are a wide variety of perspectives and opinions," says Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder. "As a company that firmly stands behind what it means to offer our team an inclusive place to work — and our guests an inclusive place to shop — we continue to believe that this is the right thing for Target."

She added that hundreds of Target stores "have single-stall, family restrooms for those who may be more comfortable with that option."

Target made its position public in a blog post last week, stating that the company welcomes "transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity." The announcement comes as legislation on transgender issues in multiple states has spurred several major corporations and businesses to take a stance on LGBT rights. 

The American Family Association, a non-profit based in Tupelo, Miss., frequently protests on issues that target what it considers traditional family values.

Its more recent campaigns include canceling the organization's use of PayPal after that company pulled back on plans to open a new facility in North Carolina, which recently passed a law requiring transgender people using public bathrooms to use the one that aligns with their gender at birth.

DONALD TRUMP OPPOSES HB2 BUT I STILL SUPPORT HIM & MCCRORY

DONALD TRUMP OPPOSES HB2 BUT I STILL ENDORSE HIM:

IN MY OPINION TRUMP IS THE BEST 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR AMERICA.

MY SUPPORT FOR GOV MCCRORY ON HB2 REMAINS THE SAME.

Sources:  NY Magazine, NBC, YouTube

***** Donald Trump Comes Out Against North Carolina’s ‘Very Strong’ Bathroom Bill

Donald Trump says transgender people should be able to "use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate." On NBC's Today show Thursday morning, the GOP front-runner said he opposes North Carolina's "very strong" bathroom bill, which allows businesses to prohibit transgender people from doing just that.

"North Carolina did something that was very strong and they're paying a big price. And there's a lot of problems." Trump said. "Leave it the way it is. North Carolina, what they're going through, with all of the business and all of the strife — and that's on both sides — you leave it the way it is. There have been very few complaints the way it is. People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate. There has been so little trouble. And the problem with what happened in North Carolina is the strife and the economic punishment they're taking."

Trump went on to say that he opposes the idea of creating a new, third bathroom specifically for transgender people because "that would be discriminatory, in a certain way," and because "it would be unbelievably expensive for businesses and for the country."

North Carolina governor Pat McCrory's office issued a statement in response to Trump's remarks:

"Governor McCrory has always said that North Carolina was getting along fine before the Charlotte city council passed its unneeded and overreaching ordinance. Now that it has been overturned, businesses can adopt their own policies - like Target has - instead of being mandated to allow men into women's restrooms by government."

Ted Cruz, Trump’s closest rival for the Republican nod, is a staunch defender of the legislation, arguing, “Men should not be going to the bathroom with little girls.” Ohio governor (and imaginary presidential contender) John Kasich has said he would not have signed the bill.

MCCRORY vs HB2 BACKLASH ON "MEET THE PRESS" (BULLYING & HYPOCRISY)

PAT MCCRORY vs HB2 BACKLASH ON "MEET THE PRESS":

MCCRORY ADDRESSES POLITICAL HYPOCRISY & HRC BULLYING.

CHARLOTTE'S REPEALED BATHROOM ORDINANCE EXCLUDED ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS BUT NOT PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

WHERE IS THE FAIRNESS IN THAT??

Sources:  NBC, Meet The Press, Charlotte Observer, Youtube

******Gov. McCrory Defends NC’s HB2 On "Meet the Press"

Gov. Pat McCrory defended North Carolina’s law on LGBT rights Sunday morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” but said the issue warrants further discussion and not overheated rhetoric.

The new law establishes a statewide nondiscrimination policy that excludes gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes and forbids cities and counties from adopting their own policies. The governor said it wasn’t the state’s role to impose policies on the private sector.

But McCrory acknowledged that the issue of bathroom use by transgender people — which was the basis of the current controversy, following Charlotte’s attempt to allow choice according to gender identity, rather than physical sex at birth — needed to be addressed.

“We have to have more dialogue, not threats,” McCrory said.

Host Chuck Todd challenged McCrory on that point, noting that the General Assembly rushed a bill through in a single day in a hastily called special session and that the governor signed it into law that same night. “You guys debated for, like, 10 seconds,” Todd said.

McCrory said the speed was necessary to stop the Charlotte ordinance from going into effect on April 1.

“This is a national debate that has literally come on in the last three months,” McCrory said. “No one talked about it until Houston,” where voters rejected an ordinance expanding gay and transgender protections.

Todd said some of the same arguments on House Bill 2 were made by Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater in opposition to racial civil rights. “The same argument was used to defeat laws that are now considered untouchable,” Todd said.

McCrory said he didn’t know of any businesses in North Carolina that had discriminatory practices, and repeated, “This extremely new social norm came in a very quick time, and we need to have these discussions.”

Yet he only said the provision in HB2 that eliminated the ability to file employment discrimination lawsuits in state court should be repealed, not the bathroom provision.

Todd said NBC had estimated that North Carolina has lost $39.7 million to $186 million because of the law, and that others had estimated the loss in billions of dollars, due to companies and events not coming to the state in protest.

McCrory also said the national news media incorrectly have compared the law to religious freedom bills in Georgia and Mississippi, noting that last year he vetoed a bill that would have allowed magistrates to opt out of performing same-sex marriages.

“We haven’t had a religious freedom bill, because I’m governor,” he said.

McCrory said there is a disconnect between national corporations and everyday people.

“You know, I was in Hamlet, North Carolina, a small town that can be at any town in the United States of America,” he said. “I walked into a buffet restaurant, African American buffet restaurant, and the people just welcomed me with open arms and said, ‘Thanks for protecting us.’ I got back in my car, and I got a call from someone in corporate America going, ‘Man, you’ve got to change this. We’re getting killed.’”

Earlier in the program actor George Clooney called North Carolina’s law “ridiculous.” McCrory said Hollywood didn’t have a place in a serious discussion about the issue, and said the new Batman movie was being shown in China, which has a terrible human rights record.

McCrory’s appearance on national TV comes despite his lack of appearances in North Carolina. He has held only one brief news conference and one TV interview on the topic since signing the bill.

Soon after the TV show, McCrory’s campaign committee emailed a plea for contributions, saying the governor had just left the set, where he “defended North Carolina against the coordinated campaign of attacks and selective outrage from out-of-state special interests, the corporate elite and the national media.”

The campaign of attorney General Roy Cooper, who is running against McCrory for governor, sent out a response to the TV appearance: “Today Governor McCrory doubled down on his belief that businesses should be able to fire an employee for being gay,” spokesman Jamal Little said. “It’s that antiquated, discriminatory attitude that is driving businesses away and hurting our reputation.”

Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the national organization fighting to overturn HB2, issued his own reaction in an email:

“Today, a nation watched as Gov. McCrory invoked an outdated and retrograde argument to defend his decision to write discrimination into state law and deny equal treatment under the law for LGBT people. Pat McCrory can’t have it both ways and say he doesn’t want the government to tell the private sector what to do while he also sticks his head in the sand and ignores more than 160 businesses who have clearly said they want HB2 repealed.”

During “Meet the Press,” McCroy cited the Human Rights Campaign as an impediment to constructive conversation, calling them “more powerful than the NRA.”

“But they are putting on a lot of pressure, instead of having good dialogue,” he said.

An earlier version of this post inadvertently said McCrory called the new law government overreach. He was referring to the Charlotte ordinance.

PAYPAL'S LGBT HYPOCRISY: CUBA vs NORTH CAROLINA (HB2)

PAYPAL'S LGBT HYPOCRISY: CUBA vs NORTH CAROLINA

PAYPAL SUPPORTS CUBA WHERE GAYS ARE EXECUTED, BUT BOYCOTTS NORTH CAROLINA.

WHERE IS OBAMA AND GEORGE SOROS?

WHERE IS CONGRESS??

Sources: Christian Post, Red State, WND, YouTube 

***** BUSTED: PayPal’s Glaring Bathroom Hypocrisy Exposed

Let’s start off this piece with the understanding that hypocrisy is a liberal virtue. 

They won’t openly claim to be hypocrites, but they will openly engage in hypocritical behavior. 

Without that glaring absence of self-awareness, the progressive left would likely lose some of their Stalinesque charm.

Now, turn your focus to PayPal.

 As reported here, yesterday, PayPal has withdrawn plans to expand their operations in North Carolina, in response to the newly passed House Bill 2, or the “bathroom bill,” which prohibits NC cities from setting gender neutral policies for all businesses and schools in their area. 

The bill came as a response to a Charlotte, NC ordinance that was set to go into effect on April 1, 2016, that would have allowed men to enter the locker rooms or bathrooms of women, in accordance with how they claimed to “feel,” gender-wise, for that day. Gov. McCrory signed the bill correcting the ordinance. Cue pearl-clutching.

North Carolina Lieutenant Governor, Dan Forest, issued a statement today, in regards to PayPal’s decision to cease expansion in the state over the bill:

"If our action in keeping men out of women's bathrooms and showers protected the life of just one child or one woman from being molested or assaulted, then it was worth it. North Carolina will never put a price tag on the value of our children. They are precious and priceless. 

If a corporation wanting to do business in North Carolina does not see the worth of our children in the same light, then I wish them well as they do business somewhere else."

Kudos to North Carolina’s state government for holding the line, where other states have stood, only to quickly fold under outside pressure, in this war against cultural Marxism.

Paypal has no problem maintaining operations in areas like Cuba, Singapore, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia – all known for their stringent anti-LGBT policies (and they don’t stop at just prohibiting mixed bathrooms). Hypocrisy.

Also, while PayPal would see North Carolina’s women and children put in harm’s way, simply to save the feelings of what amounts to 0.3% of the population, they don’t exactly practice what they preach. Lt. Governor Forest displayed this picture of PayPal’s global operations center on his Facebook page today. They’ve highlighted the symbol indicating the way to the Men’s restroom – not “gender neutral,” but an honest-to-goodness, segregated-by-gender bathroom!

PayPal, like every other business, is free to conduct their business any way they see fit. If that means they just can’t tolerate doing business with a state that keeps bathrooms and public shower rooms separated for the privacy and safety of the different sexes, then so be it. However, they should know that their customers are equally free to decide if they want to do business with a company that doesn’t reflect their values and would use coercive means to force their beliefs on that population.

There are unsubstantiated reports of PayPal office phone lines being backed up with calls of users cancelling their accounts, in protest of their stance against North Carolina’s bathroom bill.

Time will tell who suffers the most damage in this cultural conflict.