What European’s Think About Us

The U.S. has signed many U.N. treaties promising that we will obey international law but we make those promises with our fingers crossed.

European Union Says HB 2 Violates United Nations Treaty
The European Union is taking a stand against North Carolina's anti-LGBT law. 
The Advocate
By Yezmin Villarreak
May 15, 2016

The European Union spoke out against North Carolina's anti-LGBT House Bill 2 this week, saying that it should "be reconsidered as soon as possible."

In a statement released this week, the European Union singled out North Carolina's HB 2, as well as the anti-LGBT laws that have passed in states such as Tennessee and Mississippi recently. The European Union said that those states "are violating an international agreement on civil rights," reports The News & Observer.
[…]
Catherine Ray, a spokeswoman for the Union, wrote in a statement posted on the European Union's website that anti-LGBT laws "discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons" and "contravene the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the U.S. is a state party, and which states that the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection."

The covenant that Ray is referring to was established in 1966 by the United Nations General Assembly. According to the U.S. Constitution, "international treaties have the same authority as federal law," reports the Observer. The treaty does not specify sexual orientation or gender identity among the categories protected from discrimination, reports the Observer.

Under President Obama the U.S. also signed the UN declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity in 2009 but somehow I don’t think North Carolina is quaking in their boots.

“We relinquished our adherence to the British crown and European powers over 200 years ago,” Diaz [Gov. Pat McCrory's campaign spokesman], reports the Observer. “The law is now in federal court, where it will be resolved.”

N.C. Republican Party executive director Dallas Woodhouse told the Observer that the European Union's statement was “absolutely no surprise since North Carolina Democrats led by Roy Cooper want to install European socialist policies ... that are an affront to the common sense traditions of North Carolina and America.”

No surprise here. North Carolina just doesn’t care what the rest of the U.S. thinks and they don’t care what the world think.