N. Carolina LGBTQ+ youth facing trouble

Krys+Didtrey%2C+left%2C+and+Gloria+Merriweather%2C+center%2C+of+Charlotte%2C+N.C.%2C+lead+chants+in+opposition+to+HB2+during+a+protest+in+the+lobby+of+the+State+Legislative+Building+in+Raleigh%2C+N.C.%2C+on+Monday%2C+April+25%2C+2016.

Robert Willett/Raleigh News & Observer/TNS

Krys Didtrey, left, and Gloria Merriweather, center, of Charlotte, N.C., lead chants in opposition to HB2 during a protest in the lobby of the State Legislative Building in Raleigh, N.C., on Monday, April 25, 2016.

Gabrielle Trunzo, Guest Writer

June 26, 2015 – the day the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage and civil union legal in all 50 states.

When looking from the standpoint of someone who is LGBTQ+, like myself, this was seen as a major accomplishment.

However, the battle is far from over. Many states such as North Carolina are trying to jump backwards by making legal the discrimination of LGBTQ+ people in the workforce and when being served in public places.

“The North Carolina legislature plans to hold a special session Wednesday to consider fully repealing the contentious laws curbing legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people,” wrote Dillon Deaton of The New York Times.

When elected officials try to determine who can, and cannot be discriminated against, it brings back a time much similar to that of racism. Looking back to segregation, this is essentially what was happening.

“Pat McCrory announced he would call legislators back to the Capitol on Wednesday to repeal the law known as HB2, which excludes sexual orientation and gender identity from antidiscrimination protections. The law also requires transgender people to use restrooms corresponding with the sex on their birth certificate in many public buildings,” wrote the AP according to Fox News.

This seems eerily familiar when the time there were “Black” and “White” only restrooms doesn’t it? That is exactly what this is just with a new group of the minority in a new era.

It honestly is sad that elected governors such as Ray Cooper and Pat McCrory have any say in the lives of other people who have no choice of how they feel inside.

“Governor-elect Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday morning that Republican legislative leaders had “assured” him that a special session would be called “to repeal H.B. 2 in full,” wrote Deaton.

Why should someone be allowed to discriminate on someone because of the way they are born? The LGBTQ+ community had just as much of a “choice” to be born that way as someone who is African American.

You cannot choose to be born with blue eyes just because you want them, how you come out of the womb is who you were born to be without a choice. It is a new form of segregation, that will be taking us back to an era we had sworn to never go back to.

This law will affect not only jobs in North Carolina, but business as well. When you discriminate on someone who can do the job, but you won’t hire because they are LGBTQ+, it is a loss of employees and a loss of business because now you have no one to do the job.

It is time for North Carolina to wake up, and smell the air of a new era, and to bask in it, because there is no need to go back to an era of hate and violence based on identity.