No doubt, you have heard by now about North Carolina’s anti-LGBT bill, signed into law by Republican Gov. McCrory last Wednesday. It is drawing condemnation across the United States and beyond — even the CBC in Canada did a report about the backlash the other night on it national TV news broadcast.

In short, North Carolina has become a laughingstock, and is now viewed by many as the No. 1 redneck state in the United States. The law leaves lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people without protections in the workplace, housing etc. If you’re gay, you could be turned down for a job simply because the employer is against homosexuality.

And it makes some transgender people — those who have not fully gender transitioned to the point where their sex has been changed on their birth certificates — use public washrooms and locker rooms that correspond to the sex designation on their birth certificates as opposed to the facilities that match their gender identity and presentation.

The Republicans’ big fear was that criminals — rapists, pedophiles and the like — would dress up in women’s clothes and pretend to be trans women in order to slip into women’s facilities and commit crimes — even though there is little or no precedence for those types of crimes in places where trans woman use the women’s facilities.

It didn’t occur to the Republican dolts in North Carolina that they would be also be forcing some big, burly, husky-voiced trans men to use women’s facilities — a prospect one prominent Canadian feminist told me is far scarier than the thought of having a trans woman pee in the stall next to her.

And it didn’t occur to said Republican dolts that rapists and pedophiles could now pose as trans men — without the bother of dressing up as women — to access women’s facilities.

Clearly, Republicans in that state and across the country are blinded by ignorance and hatred. And they have now made life in North Carolina much more uneasy, if not dangerous, for many people. Some trans women will have to use the men’s facilities, which could lead to some very dangerous situations. And said trans men will have to use women’s facilities, which may frighten a lot of women.

The photo below is of a friend of mine, Michael Hughes of Texas, a trans man and activist who points out that when he is in North Carolina, he will have to use the women’s facilities in some places. He apologizes if he will make anyone feel uncomfortable.

If you need someone to blame for this snafu, blame Gov. McCrory.

— Jillian

Michael Hughes