You Have To Wonder

How the recent Supreme Court action will affect the judge in North Carolina ruling on HB2. The hearing seemed to go our way but that was before the Supreme Court refused to issue a stay in the Virginia case.

North Carolina Tried to Defend HB 2 in Federal Court. It Didn’t Go Well.
Indy Week
By Jordan Green
August 3, 2016

Attempting to explain why North Carolina has a compelling interest in requiring transgender people to use the bathrooms that align with their biological sex, Governor McCrory's lawyer lost control of his argument before he'd even begun.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder, a George W. Bush appointee, was trying to understand how HB 2 makes bathrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms safer during a hearing in Winston-Salem on Monday.

"If a transgender female goes into a women's public restroom, there's a risk of public exposure," Butch Bowers, the governor's lawyer, posited.

"How can there be public exposure?" an incredulous Schroeder responded. "There are no urinals in a women's bathroom."

It went downhill from there, as Bowers and two other attorneys for the defendants, representing the General Assembly and the University of North Carolina, argued against a preliminary injunction that would block the bathroom provision of HB 2. The state ACLU has filed suit against the state, along with a transgender man employed by UNC-Chapel Hill, two transgender students at UNC-Greensboro and UNC School of the Arts, respectively, and three lesbian women. The federal government has filed a separate lawsuit, alleging that HB 2 violates the sex discrimination provisions of Title IX. The two lawsuits are expected to be consolidated for a trial scheduled for November 14.

We will probably hear from the judge before the November 14^th court date. The article ended by saying,

Schroeder's decision will likely be guided by a ruling from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in April, which found that Gavin Grimm, a transgender high school student in Virginia, has the right to use the bathroom he prefers. Bowers, McCrory's lawyer, seemed to hedge his bets. He requested that any injunction be "narrowly tailored" to the named plaintiffs and to Title IX requirements that school systems not engage in discrimination. He also asked that it only apply to bathrooms.

"I'm going to endeavor to get you a decision as soon as I can," Schroeder promised. "I know that school is about to crank up for some unfortunate or fortunate students."

But the law is not just affecting trans people but also women.

I’m Proof Bathroom Bills Are Not Just a Transgender Issue
Time
By Sally Kohn
May 9, 2016

I’m a lesbian and I fear public restroom confrontations

I hate using public restrooms. Airports and rest stops are my least favorite. I avoid locker rooms whenever possible. But really every restroom is bad. In fact, it happened to me just the other day in my fancy office building in New York City. I was at the sink, washing my hands, when a woman walked into the restroom and did a double take, first looking at me and then looking back at the sign on the still-open door of the restroom. Was she in the wrong place? Or, implicitly, was I?

I am a biological female who identifies as a woman. I am not, for any intents or purposes, transgender. But as a non-gender conforming butch lesbian, I have my own tiny window into our nation’s current political debate about bathrooms—the always looming fear that easily slips into shame, and the occasional outright harassment, all because I have to pee. And that’s from using the bathrooms that I “should” be using according to vicious anti-transgender bills sweeping the nation.

She goes on to make the point…

What these “bathroom bills” are actually about is enforcing traditional gender codes and norms in an increasingly diverse and shifting America. Single-sex restrooms just like single-sex dormitories have always been rooted in compulsory heteronormativity and the sense that we have to protect women from men who can’t expect to be reigned in. This still echoes today, as when an all-male elite club at Harvard University suggested that allowing women to join would increase the potential for sexual assault. And notice that no one seems to worry about pedophiles being forced to use the little boy’s room instead. The point is that girls need protecting.

These laws were passed by conservative Republicans who have the image of a perfect women to them, long blonde hair, well breasted, wearing a skirt or a dress and in high heels… the image of a beauty pageant queen. It is totally foreign to them the image of a butch lesbian.