Singer Sir Elton John slammed North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat McCrory on Tuesday for supporting a bill preventing transgender people from using bathroom facilities that don’t match their biological sex.
“Forcing transgender people to use the bathroom of a gender with which they don’t identify isn’t just inconvenient or impractical. For many, especially young students still grappling with their transition, it can be traumatic, and at worst, unsafe,” wrote John in an opinion piece published by The Hill on May 17, which is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Bipobia.
Despite the British singer-songwriter’s accusations, the text of HB2 allows public agencies and schools to provide accommodations for transgender people, including single occupancy bathrooms or separate changing facilities.
Gov. McCrory sued the Department of Justice on May 9, alleging overreach after Attorney General Loretta Lynch required the state to stop implementation of HB2. The DOJ responded with their own lawsuit on the same day, arguing that transgender people have a right to use sex-segregated facilities of their choice.
John accused supporters of this and similar bills of possessing an ignorance of the transgender experience that “deliberately shuts out the perspective of an already marginalized community.”
“They need to recognize the existence of trans people, and they need to acknowledge that all people have a fundamental desire — and a fundamental right — to be treated fairly,” stated John.
McCrory argued in a PBS NewsHour interview last week that HB2 is being mischaracterized and criticized accusations that the law violates civil rights.
“When you go to a restroom or to a locker room or to a shower facility, there is an expectation of privacy, that the only other people in that room, in a very private moment, I might add, will be people of the same gender,” McCrory said.
The Republican governor said he is pursuing the lawsuit against the Department of Justice because he believes it is necessary to gain “clarity in the judicial system to further define gender identity and gender identity’s usage in our restrooms.”
