Charlotte gets the Edward Longshanks treatment over HB2

Fans of the movie Braveheart may remember the below exchange between the ruthless English king, Edward the Longshanks, and his field commander during the climactic battle scene.  The English troops are engaged in fierce hand to hand combat with William Wallace's Scottsmen when Longshanks orders the archers to fire randomly into the melee.

Longshanks: Archers.
English Commander: I beg pardon, sire. Won't we hit our own troops?!?!
Longshanks: Yes... but we'll hit theirs as well. We have reserves. Attack!

As events unfold in the aftermath of the NCGA passing HB2 which rescinded Charlotte's so-called "Bathroom Ordinance", that exact scenario seems to be unfolding with Charlotte playing the role of the English troops coming under friendly fire..

Tuesday's announcement by PayPal that it is no longer considering Charlotte for its expansion plans follows announcements by the NBA that it may rethink coming to Charlotte for the 2017 All Star weekend as well as numerous state travel restrictions from across the country - trips that likely would have included Charlotte.

Of course there is lots of finger pointing on all sides.

Charlotte officials blame the legislature.  The NCGA says none of this would have happened if Charlotte had not acted first by enacting the ordinance in the face of clear warnings from Raleigh that doing so would get a response.

Regardless of who is right, Charlotte is paying the price.  Frankly, if I was a Charlotte City Council member who voted for the ordinance which started this whole thing, I would be a bit P.O.d at these groups threatening to hurt the city.

Weren't they good soldiers for the cause?  Yes.  Yes, they were.

But, maybe that's the point.  Good soldiers are sent into battle knowing they won't all come out unscathed.

Here is an interesting map from the ACLU depicting which states have statewide laws treating LGBT people as a protected class.

You will notice no state in the south has this protection.  In fact it appears less than half of all states have LGBT protection in statewide law.

So, why all the brouhaha over North Carolina?  Why now?

On some level, it is just electoral politics.

It is an election year.  Gov McCrory is very vulnerable.   Any damage done to him in Mecklenburg really hurts him.  That explains at least some of it.

Also, if the NCGA cracks and adds LGBT protection to the state law, that's a major victory for the LGBT lobby by adding NC to that map as the first southern state.

However, as long as Charlotte is the main area paying the price for HB2, it would seem unlikely the majority of legislators hailing from more rural areas will care.

As this plays out it seems the Charlotte pols maybe didn't realize that, or they didnt think their supposed ideological allies might be launching arrows at their backs.

Charlotte pols may have thought they were actually in charge, when in fact they are just pawns in a larger battle.

Bonus Observation: Charlotte City Council member Kenny Smith (a Republican) had an interesting take on the issue this Wednesday AM.

Listen here.

WFAE.org article acknowledging this issue as welll.  See here.

Will Town of Davidson officially oppose HB2?

With the debate about Charlotte's "Bathroom ordonance" and the NCGA invalidation of it continuing to rage across the nation, municiputies in the state have begun passing resolutions opposing HB2 which invalidated the Charlotte's action.

Will the Town of Davodson follow suit?

That question was posed to Davidson's Board on Friday with Mayor John Woods responding immediately with this.

"The Town Board has not met since the passage of HB2.  It is possible we will discuss this in due time and engage a conversation.

We will certainly keep all citizens informed."

Responses from a majority of Commissioners indicate if such an ordinance does come up for discussion, it likely will be well received.

Commissioner Rodney Graham chimed in with this lengthy statement.

"I'm happy to give you my personal opinion, but it only represents my opinion.  I can't speak for anyone else.

I think it's a terrible piece of legislation.  It has been mischaracterized as dealing with bathrooms, but if you look at the Charlotte ordinance the bathroom issue was a very minor part of that legislation.  Charlotte was simply wanting to join hundreds of other municipalities across the country (including some in North Carolina and several in South Carolina) and extend protections against discrimination to the LGBT community, which is a sizable community which suffers from discrimination.

The NCGA took away those protections, and even made it more difficult for people in existing protected classes to take action if they feel they have been discriminated against.  They have made it legal in NC for businesses to refuse to provide services to the LGBT community.  Fortunately, most businesses realize that it is bad for business to discriminate against anyone, but it is shameful that it is the law of our state that they can do so.

You have undoubtedly observed the reaction of the business community to this legislation.  While facebook is not a scientific gauge of public opinion, both Tarte and Bradford are getting criticized roundly on their facebook pages for their support of this legislation, and not just by the usual suspects.

Ultimately the legislation will be overturned either through the political or judicial process.  It is unfortunate that the NCGA put the state through this embarrassment.

And yes, it is one more example of a Raleigh knows best attitude.  I'd love for people to contact their local legislators about this issue."

Commissioner Jim Fuller followed that with a simple "I agree with Rodney."  Commissioner Stacey Anderson then said "I agree with Rodney and Jim."

That gives the town a Board majority supporting opposition to HB2.  The only quesion is will they act on it.

Update 4/4:  All five Davidson Commissioners have now expressed support for Rodney Graham's comments.

Update 4/12: Davidson adds request to repeal HB2 to its legislative agenda for the upcoming NCGA session .