Three Asheville City Council members call for local non-discrimination ordinance

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Press release from Keith Young, Brian Haynes, Cecil Bothwell:

What: Asheville Councilmen call for non-discrimination ordinance

When: ASAP

Why: Fourth Circuit ruling

Who: Asheville City Council members Keith Young, Brian Haynes, Cecil Bothwell

Contact: brianhaynes@avlcouncil.comkeithyoung@avlcouncil.comcecil@braveulysses.com

On April 19 the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Virginia’s law concerning gender and public restrooms is unconstitutional. Because North Carolina is also in the Fourth Circuit, this ruling is a strong implication that North Carolina’s Session Law 2016-3/House Bill 2 will receive similar treatment by the court.

It is our belief that the Asheville City Council should prepare an ordinance modeled on the non-discrimination ordinance passed by the Charlotte City Council on Feb. 22. In the Asheville resolution on this issue passed unanimously by Council, we said we would “adopt appropriate local ordinances to advance the cause of equal protection.” We should be ready to move forward on that promise when the court rules on the North Carolina law.

 

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About Virginia Daffron
Managing editor, lover of mountains, native of WNC. Follow me @virginiadaffron

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21 thoughts on “Three Asheville City Council members call for local non-discrimination ordinance

  1. Peter Robbins

    Minor correction: The Fourth Circuit did not rule on the constitutionality of a law in that decision. It upheld the Obama administration’s interpretation of a regulation promulgated under Title IX. The decision came in connection with a reversal of a lower court’s dismissal of a complaint brought by a student. The decision means that the school must allow the student (who identifies as male) to use the facilities with which he identifies. The reasoning of the decision would apply equally to HB2.

  2. James

    Keith, Brian and Cecil. As you gleefully await for a supremacist judge to over-turn HB2 are you prepared for the massive NO WAY movement that will follow in North Carolina if that happens? Do you really think that women are going to stand by and passively tolerate men entering their restrooms or changing in their locker rooms? Do you think the men who love these women are going to tell their wives, daughters and mothers that they’ll just have to accept it now? Not going to happen. There comes a point when the people rebel against tyrannical insanity. Women and men WILL THROW OUT men invading the women’s public bathrooms and locker rooms and yes, that includes those who dress like women. The bullies at the “human rights campaign” along with their servants in the media, Hollywood and now corporate America can bark all they want but Main Street America isn’t going to take it.

    • Hauntedheadnc

      Exactly where on God’s gray earth do you think transgendered people were going to the bathroom before now? And exactly how do you propose to even enforce HB2?

    • NFB

      Can somebody please explain how the bathroom provision in HB2 is enforceable?

      • James

        Here’s how it will ultimately be enforced after a supremacist judge rules it unconstitutional and Charlotte’s ordinance goes into effect, spurring similar ordinances by places like Asheville, Carrboro and Durham:

        Pre-teen girl goes into the locker room at the gym to change into her gym clothes to work out. She is horrified to see a man showering in the open, staring at her with perverted intentions in his eyes. This girl screams at him to get out but he says, “no no, I think I’m a woman right now so I have every legal right to be here. What are you going to do about it?” Our pre-teen girl marches out and tells everyone there’s a man in the women’s locker room showers. All the men who hear this are outraged and they enter the women’s locker room, shut off the water, cover this pervert up and forcibly escort him out of the locker room. The pervert protests saying he has every legal right and he’s going to sue. The men tell him to go for it. They stand guard at the door to the women’s locker room, ensuring the safety of women and girls. The pervert calls the “human rights campaign”, the media, and the police. The men do not budge and the women and girls in the community join with them in support. The people – the decent people – stand up to this fascist tyranny and aren’t afraid of the consequences. That’s how HB2 will soon be enforceable I predict.

        • Peter Robbins

          You’re assuming, “James,” that “gender identity” means the same thing as “gender pretext” or “gender whim.” It doesn’t. You’re male-in-the-ladies-room runs the risk of spending time in the cooler if a no-nonsense judge doesn’t believe his gender-identity claim is genuine. Would you feel comfortable making that argument if I were the judge? Or on the jury? You shouldn’t.

      • McCrory and company will have to form a new type of TSA, with a screener at a booth outside every public restroom, checking birth certificate and picture ID. The lines will stretch out to the street.

        • James

          That won’t be necessary Cecil. Women will take care of the TSA screenings themselves and us guys (well, not you so I’ll say most guys) will have their backs.

    • bsummers

      250 organizations working with sexual assault and domestic violence issued this joint statement today:

      “States across the country have introduced harmful legislation or initiatives that seek to repeal non-discrimination protections or restrict transgender people’s access to gender – specific facilities like restrooms. Those who are pushing these proposals have claimed that these proposals are necessary for public safety and to prevent sexual violence against women and children. As rape crisis centers, shelters, and other service providers who work each and every day to meet the needs of all survivors and reduce sexual assault and domestic violence throughout society, we speak from experience and expertise when we state that these claims are false.” (emphasis mine)

      http://endsexualviolence.org/files/NTFNationalConsensusStmtTransAccessWithSignatories.pdf

      But hey, forget about them – they’re just the professionals who deal with the issues that HB2 is supposedly addressing. Ignore them, because, well, derp.

        • bsummers

          I just did. Thanks for that.

          “In none of these cases was a law or ordinance in place allowing transgender people to use the bathrooms of their choice. They dressed as women. They went into women’s bathrooms. They were noticed, arrested, and charged. They would have been arrested and charged even with transgender protections for restroom use.”

          The Core HB2 Argument That Won’t Hold Water
          ‘Bathroom predators’ exist. But they have no connection to LGBT laws

          http://www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/April-2016/Opinion-The-Core-HB2-Argument-That-Wont-Hold-Water/

          • James

            Well duh and if the Charlotte ordinance is allowed to stand they and other perverts like them will have every legal right to start all over again in North Carolina. Would you please wake up and admit that HB2 is a good thing that was designed to protect women in response to a very bad ordinance that was destined to exploit, harass and assault them?

          • bsummers

            You’ve completely ignored these three things:

            There has never been evidence presented that the 200 or so cities or counties that have had something like the Charlotte ordinance on the books, have seen any rise in assault cases resulting from trans persons using the restroom of their choice.

            The people who have committed themselves to fighting sexual assault and helping survivors heal, etc., have come out solidly against HB2. “We speak from experience and expertise when we state that these claims are false.”

            The cases of people who have committed crimes in restrooms while dressing as women did so without an ordinance granting them permission to use that restroom, so why the heck would that kind of person care that you’ve repealed it?

            It’s about punishing people different than you, because… derp. And because some yahoos in your party thought it would be good politics. Wrong.

          • bsummers

            And you haven’t answered my question: “What the heck does any of this have to do with Saudi Arabia?”

          • James

            Oh bsummers, I know nothing is going to change your opinion on HB2 and you should no by now that absolutely nothing will change mine. If you honestly believe that overturning HB2 and letting Charlotte’s sick and dangerous ordinance stand will discourage people like Richard Rodriguez, Jason Pomare and Norwood Smith Burnes from committing the crimes they were arrested for, then I don’t know what to tell you. Those three – and more like them – got caught but if they have the legal right to be in the women’s room in the first place, catching them just got a lot more difficult. As for Saudi Arabia… well you and your type think it’s o.k. to bash North Carolina for a non-discriminatory law so why don’t you show some real bravery and confront a government that really discriminated against GLBT people?

        • boatrocker

          Republican sex offenders- yes, most victims were under aged or of the same sex- some were even in bathrooms.
          Enjoy.

          Mike Hintz -R
          Larry Dale Floyd- R
          Mark Pazuhanich- R
          Bobby Stumbo- R
          John Collins- R
          Mark Seidensticker- R
          Philip Giordano- R
          John Gosek-R
          David Swartz-R
          Edison Misla Aldarondo- R
          John R. Curtain- R
          Larry Craig- Mark Foley-R
          Newt Gingrich- R
          Strom Thurmond-R
          Donald Lukens- R
          Ed Schrock- R
          Andrew Buhr- R
          Roy Cohn- R
          Dennis Hastert-R
          ,
          Seriously, my hands are tired for listing GOP types who like underaged males/females/gay sex.

          The GOP safe guarding our children is like hiring a Catholic priest as a babysitter, and none of them wore womens’ clothes to do what they did.

          • boatrocker

            Addendum- every GOP sex offender (according to their legal counsel) cleaned up with an American flag and wiped their brow with the King James Bible. That part I made up, but you get the idea.

            The above list is true.

  3. You kind of have to wonder when the crazies (and the connivers) on the right will run out of new ways to inject idiotic wedge issues into our politics.
    As a couple of people noted upthread – HB2 is realistically unenforceable. Transgender people generally appear pretty much like the gender they have transited to. They have been using the restrooms of their changed genders for years, decades, hmm has it been centuries since public restrooms were invented? Those whom I have known are very concerned to be accepted in their changed lives and have no reason to flaunt what they once were. The arguments for that part of the bill entirely strain my imagination they are so completely stupid.

    Of course, the real intent of many of the bill’s backers was to remove the right to petition for redress in state courts if one believes that discrimination played a role in firing, or other mistreatment. The bathroom nonsense was just pasted on the front end to stir up the crazies.

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