Gov. Pat McCrory went on NBC’s Meet The Press Sunday to defend the discriminatory law that has already cost his state tens of millions of dollars at the very least. In essence, Chuck Todd destroyed him. Here’s some of our favorite McCory claims:
1. Privacy is important for everyone except transgender Americans
GOV. MCCRORY: What we've got to do is deal with this extremely new social norm that has come to our nation at a very quick period of time, and have these discussions about the complexity of equality while also balancing the concept of privacy, including even privacy in the most private of areas of our life, which is a restroom, locker room, or shower facility in our high schools.
CHUCK TODD: But gender identity is the same privacy. It's the same issue -- [...] It's dealing with that same privacy. I mean, do you want somebody who identifies as a woman, born on their birth certificate as a man, may look like a woman, going into a men's bathroom?
McCrory never answered this—he hid behind "27 to 29" other states that have also failed to consider the privacy and dignity of transgender residents. Cuz, ya know, that makes it right.
2. Charlotte's ordinance was government overreach but the state's law wasn't
MCCRORY: I will always call out government overreach. And this example, the city of Charlotte, where I was mayor for 14 years, did government overreach.
So in McCrory's warped worldview it was government overreach for Charlotte to pass a city-wide ordinance that protected the rights of people to use the bathroom most appropriate for them, but it was not government overreach for the state to pass a law that: invalidates LGBT ordinances statewide; takes away the right of all private citizens to sue in state courts; dictates to all private citizens which restrooms they must use on government property and in schools; and restricts the right of of any city to raise the minimum wage.
That tangled mess of telling cities what policy they can and can't make along with robbing private citizens of individual rights and protections—that's all fair game under Pat McCrory's definition of government overreach.
3. McCrory's a promoter of "dialogue" and thoughtful discourse
I've touched on this hypocrisy before, but it bears repeating that McCrory suddenly claims everyone just needs to calm down and talk about this—after he and his GOP colleagues rammed this horribly ill-conceived lesson in government overreach through in a swift one-day special session that left lawmakers five minutes to read the bill. Chuck Todd annihilates McCrory on his dual realities.
GOV. PAT MCCRORY: But I tell you what I have learned through this, is we've got to have more dialogue and not threats. [...]
CHUCK TODD: It's a very thoughtful thing for you to say about dialogue. Where was the dialogue in this? I mean, first of all, you didn't--
GOV. PAT MCCRORY: Well, let me tell you.
CHUCK TODD: Your legislature--
GOV. PAT MCCRORY: I didn't want to-- But legislature, to their defense--
CHUCK TODD: What dialogue?
GOV. PAT MCCRORY: We had an April 1st deadline in which the Charlotte law was coming into effect. And they had to pass the law prior to--
CHUCK TODD: But you had said you weren't worried about that deadline.
GOV. PAT MCCRORY: I wasn't.
The legislature made me do it! McCrory wasn't worried about it but, as governor, he just had to do what the legislature wanted, because that's his role—puppet of the legislature. (If you want an explanation that’s much closer to the truth about why he signed the bill, here it is. McCrory and his political team were sure this bill would be a net-positive for his re-election campaign. Oops.)
4. North Carolina is exactly the same as New York
McCrory wants you to know that North Carolina has the same LGBT policies as New York does ...
MCCRORY: We have 27 to 29 states that also don't have this type of mandate on private business, including the state of New York.
This is just wrong on so many levels. Technically, it’s true that the state lacks full protections for transgender residents, but in no way is New York equivalent to North Carolina when it comes to LGBTQ nondiscrimination policy, except in McCrory’s head.
1) New York has statewide protections for people on the basis of sexual orientation, North Carolina does not.
2) When the City of New York added "gender identity" and "gender expression" to the city's Human Rights Law and Mayor Bill de Blasio added protections ensuring the right of all residents to use public bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender, do you recall Gov. Andrew Cuomo suddenly signing a sweeping state law that invalidated the ordinance? That's because he didn't.
5) Also, McCrory's just like GOP South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley
Hahahaha. Hahahahahaha. Oh, McCrory, you jokester. The fumbling governor has repeatedly tried to liken himself to Nikki Haley. Curious, since Haley has made an effort to stop South Carolina's version of a "bathroom bill" before it gains steam. Meanwhile, McCrory jumped at the chance to sign his state's bill into law. Nikki Haley is far from perfect, but she hasn't championed codifying anti-trans bigotry into law, nor does she think average citizens need the government telling them which restrooms to use.