Apparently, the strategy of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and other opponents of privacy and freedom, is to continually repeat a big lie in the hopes people will eventually come to believe it. That’s how they have attacked a new law in North Carolina known as the Bathroom Privacy and Safety Act (HB 2).

The Bathroom Privacy Act was a necessary and reasonable response to the Charlotte City Council’s passage of a harmful ordinance that would have required public accommodations to allow grown men to shower, undress, and use bathrooms in facilities designated for women and girls.

Since the passage of the Bathroom Privacy Act, the state of North Carolina has been the target of a sophisticated misinformation campaign orchestrated by the Human Rights Campaign, a large national activist organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., and its allies and supporters. They have poured millions of dollars into North Carolina to bully and intimidate the state into bowing to its gender identity agenda, jeopardizing the privacy and safety of our citizens, particularly women and children.

These opponents of privacy have convinced large corporations to oppose this commonsense law. In choosing to side with the likes of HRC, big business is working against its long term interests by attacking a state consistently ranked as one of the best for business in the country. And in criticizing North Carolina’s privacy protections, they seem to have conveniently forgotten that they operate in foreign countries with actual human rights abuses, including imprisoning or executing people who are gay, lesbian, or transgender.

But the hypocrisy doesn’t stop there. Some celebrities are refusing to perform in North Carolina even though they perform in countries where same-sex marriage is banned.

But the double standard of the opposition isn’t limited to corporations, activists, and celebrities. North Carolina’s very own Attorney General Roy Cooper now refuses to do his job and defend the law against a challenge filed by the ACLU and its allies.

After weeks of bullying by HRC, Equality NC, the ACLU, and big corporations, Gov. Pat McCrory issued a decidedly mixed executive order that does five things:

  • Maintains common sense gender-specific restroom and locker room facilities in government buildings and schools.
  • Affirms the private sector’s right to establish its own restroom and locker room policies.
  • Affirms the private sector and local governments’ right to establish non-discrimination employment policies for its own employees.
  • Expands the state’s employment policy for state employees to cover sexual orientation and gender identity.
  • Seeks legislation to reinstate the right to sue in state court for discrimination.

The first three actions in the executive order are welcome because they reinforce and affirm the Bathroom Privacy Act. The last two items, however, seem to open the door to adding unnecessary provisions that will satisfy no one.

North Carolinians and their elected representatives on both sides of the aisle have repeatedly weighed and rejected adding favoritism for “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (SOGI) to the law, realizing such laws undermine freedom and empower the state to punish and silence its citizens for peacefully living and working according to their core convictions.

And yet, with the stroke of a pen, North Carolina’s first Republican governor in 20 years enacted just such a new policy in this executive order. If he thought this lurch to the left was going to appease those smearing his state, he is mistaken.

The ACLU and Equality NC quickly denounced the executive order, and the corporations are still threatening to leave. They will not be satisfied until every public facility and business is forced to conform to their gender ideology by force of law. So much for tolerance and mutual respect.

More importantly, mandating new SOGI policies makes evangelicals mistrust McCrory, especially after 1,000 of them gathered to thank him for standing strong on HB 2 the day before his executive order.

The final action in the executive order calls for the North Carolina General Assembly to reinstate a state cause of action for wrongful termination from employment. Employment attorneys report that most wrongful termination lawsuits are filed in federal court, and re-establishing a state cause of action for wrongful termination is not such a pressing need that it would justify re-opening HB 2 during North Carolina’s short budget session. If it becomes a problem it can always be addressed at a later, less confrontational, time.

We know opponents of North Carolina’s Bathroom Privacy Act will not stop until the law requires biological men be given full access to intimate spaces that are set aside for women and girls, regardless of safety and privacy concerns.

McCrory and legislative leaders must hold their ground on the Bathroom Privacy Act without making any more changes or concessions. Not only because the left will not be appeased, but because the people of North Carolina, two-thirds of whom wanted Charlotte’s horrible ordinance repealed, are firmly behind them and are looking for true leadership that won’t give in to political correctness.