When North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory appeared on Fox & Friends to promote his state's anti-LGBT law, he was warmly validated by Brian Kilmeade. So maybe McCrory thought he would get the same love on Fox News Sunday. Turns out - not so much!
McCrory was a guest on Fox News Sunday, hosted by Chris Wallace. In response to Wallace's question about how he would respond to the Department of Justice which requested that the state stop enforcing the law, McCrory said that he asked the DOJ for an extension on that request. (McCrory's administration is now suing the DOJ). McCrory whined about how the federal government is being a big, bad bully. He claimed that the government is saying that "boys who might think that they're girls can go into a girls locker room, rest room, or shower facility."
Wallace put McCrory on the spot: “You call this a case of Washington overreach. Would it be overreach for the Justice Dept to send you a letter like this to say you cannot have bathrooms in the state capitol one for white and one for black?” McCory replied that while race can be defined, "it’s very hard to define transgender or gender identity.” Wallace informed McCrory that the DOJ considers those who are transgender of being in a protected class, just as race is.
When Wallace asked McCrory to cite specific incidents of anybody posing as transgender in order to commit a crime, McCrory whined about the evil Democrats and "the expectation of privacy." Wallace continued to put pressure on McCrory when he asked why the bill was passed if there is no problem.
Wallace asked McCrory about the loss of business revenue due to HB2. McCrory continued to whine and accused Pay Pal, which is not expanding in North Carolina due to HB2, of hypocrisy in that they supposedly do business with evil un-American companies. McCrory boldly proclaimed that North Carolinians "believe that a man who is a man ought to use the restroom that is on the door..." and that allowing those who are transgender, to use the bathroom of their gender identity, is "a change of norms" which Obama is "trying to change."
It's a thing of beauty when Fox guests push back on the propaganda - but when a Fox hosts pushes back on uninformed and biased propaganda, it's really sweet!
It’s too bad Republicans and Democrats can’t work together on this issue which is a molehill to straights but a huge mountain to the small number of transgender we’re talking of (estimated at .2% of the U.S. population or thereabouts). Not to mention there are many laws on the books against sexual harassment, child molesting, etc. which should protect the public in most cases without even sweating that. And, of course, as Newshounds mentions and has been reported widely, this isn’t a problem looking for a solution since conservatives can’t provide real world examples of straights harassing the opposite sex in bathrooms pretending to be transgender.
What conservatives ignore but has been well documented on public television and radio is transgender people not only identity with the opposite sex but in the cases I’ve seen look indistinguishable from them. So right-wing men want some transgender person indistinguishable from a woman entering their restroom and checking their junk as the pass by to an open urinal? Seriously?
Plus, Republicans ignore the real problem and refuse to deal with it: transgender folk face humiliation and abuse but not at all the other way around. In one documented case, a female student identifying as a male got routinely ganged up on and beaten up in the girls room but was prohibited from using the boys. It got so bad she was allowed to use the faculty restroom. However, outside of grade school in the real world there generally isn’t a 3rd option.