Bathroom billl — how Democrats have profited at the expense of North Carolina voters

The tale of Sisyphus isn’t just the stuff of ancient mythology, it’s also the current tale of politics in North Carolina. For those that are not familiar, Sisyphus was sentenced to an eternity of pushing a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down each time, forcing him to start over. The phrase the labor of Sisyphus refers to any hopeless task that must be repeated endlessly.

In North Carolina, our current labor of Sisyphus is repealing HB2. The Democratic governor and the Republican-led General Assembly may disagree on which one of them is Sisyphus and which one of them is the boulder, but that comes as little surprise, since they really don’t agree on much anyway, except for maybe wanting to host college basketball games in our state over the next six years.  

{mosads}This past week, the Associated Press issued a report that HB2 will cost the state of North Carolina upwards of $3.76 billion in lost business and revenue.  The NCAA issued an ultimatum that, if HB2 were not repealed within 48 hours of a press conference on Tuesday, it would move forward without North Carolina’s bids for championship games through 2022. Even the Onion parodied North Carolina’s response, noting that you “sometimes you just have to take a stand for the wrong-headed and oppressive nonsense you believe in.”

After several ineffectual efforts to repeal HB2, including a December bill that was voted down by Democrats because it included a cooling off period, things came to a head last night when dueling news conferences reported what we’ll refer to as alternative facts.

First, Senate majority leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore stated that “[t]he governor made a proposal late last week that we are prepared to agree to in principle.”

Then, Governor Cooper denied he agreed to the deal, issuing a press release stating “It’s frustrating that Republican leaders are more interested in political stunts than a compromise to repeal HB2” and specifically objecting to the incorporation of Religious Freedom Restoration Act style language.  The irony of Cooper’s reference to political stunts is not lost on those of us who remember him telling Democratic Senators to vote against repeal back in December.

In other words, the boulder was pushed back up the hill, only to roll right back down, and here we are once again, starting over.

From the perspective of a citizen of North Carolina, I find two things here to be incredibly troubling.  First, the perspective of actual transgender individuals is missing from much of lawmakers’ narratives, and it has been from the start. Although democrats are quick to shout that the law is discriminatory, and Republicans are quick to counter that we need to protect our children, here’s why they both miss the mark.  

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Dana Hootun, a transgender woman who underwent gender reassignment surgery in December of 2014. In the same way that I, as a woman, feel frustrated hearing large groups of men discuss women’s health and reproductive rights, I have been frustrated by the amount of times I encounter someone in North Carolina who espouses their opinion on HB2 without actually knowing any transgender individuals and how the law impacts them.

To the surprise of many, Hootun says she supports HB2 because “people shouldn’t be able to just casually decide what gender they identify with.” Hootun emphasized that, as per usual, lawmakers, and those that shout the loudest about repeal of HB2, are focused on the wrong things. Specifically, she noted that her surgery was considered cosmetic and was not covered by her insurance. Unfortunately, lawmakers appear to be more focused on raising money for themselves than on how to properly invest in their constituents, who Hootun acknowledges consist of only a small percentage of transgender individuals.  

As an advocate for the transgender community, Hootun stated that activists time would be better spent educating lawmakers on gender dysphoria and working with the healthcare and insurance industries to ensure greater insurance coverage for those with a diagnosis confirmed by a licensed professional and requiring surgery, instead of re-hashing their obvious disagreements surrounding HB2.

Hootun’s arguments about politicians misplaced priorities leads directly to my second point, which is that politicians are generally more focused on fundraising than fundamental human rights, which is well articulated by another transgender activist, Janice Covington Allison.  Although I did not speak to Allison directly, she has previously blasted NC Democrats for “throwing transgenders under the bus” and specifically that Equality NC and Human Rights Campaign “have consistently raised money off of our backs over the bathroom bill and they have refused to compromise with lawmakers because it is more financially lucrative for them to keep it the way it is so they can continue to raise money.”

As a North Carolina resident, I am tired of Democrats treating social issues they purport to care deeply about as a cash cow, and I am likewise tired of Republicans trying to tell me I should be afraid every time I use a public restroom because a transgender person might be lurking there.

Most importantly, I am tired of political compromise being treated as a bad idea. As I noted earlier this month on the Charlotte-NBC affiliate show Flashpoint, it is much harder to undo legislation than it is to pass legislation in the first place, so let’s hope that our state politicians can get their priorities in order.

To Allison’s point, although the media has spent a great deal of time focused on what HB2 has cost the state of North Carolina, perhaps they should be more focused on what politicians, and Democrats in particular, have gained from it.

When it comes to HB2, we may have to roll the boulder up and down the hill a few more times before we find a resolution that our government leaders can agree on.  

Rory E. Riley-Topping has dedicated her career to ensuring accountability within the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) to care for our nation’s veterans. She is principal at veterans advocate Riley-Topping Consulting and has served as in a legal capacity for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Veterans Affairs and for the National Veterans Legal Services Program.

The views of contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.