Seems a good day to post this. For those not following the story, North Carolina’s infamous ‘Bathroom law’ – amongst other things – requires transgender people to use toilets consistent with their birth gender, not their gender identity.
Loretta Lynch’s powerful speech from earlier this year, announces legal action against the North Carolina legislature, and heartfelt opposition to ‘state-sponsored discrimination’:-
‘…what we must not do, what we must never do, is turn on our neighbours, our family members….for something that they cannot control, and deny what makes them human. And this is why none of us can stand by when a State enters the business of legislating identity, and insists that a person pretend to be something or someone that they are not, or invents a problem that does not exist as a pretext for discrimination or harassment.
[addressing people of North Carolina directly]…you have been told that this law protects vulnerable populations from harm, but that is just not the case. Instead, what this law does is inflict further indignity on a population that has already suffered far more than its fair share. This law provides no benefit to society, and all it does is harm….and instead of turning away from our neighbours, our friends and our colleagues, let us instead learn from our history, and avoid repeating the mistakes of our past.’
Hear, hear. We are all in this together, and we need each other.
Palace Gate Counselling Service, Exeter
Counselling Exeter since 1994