What’s so scary about HB 2 is that it doesn’t seem discriminatory when first read, but the contradictions are all over it. It says that North Carolinians have the right not to be discriminated against, but then makes the basis of that protection “biological sex”, immediately endangering anyone who isn’t cisgender. This is terrifying.
As is so often the case with GOP tactics in general, the plan is that voters will allow themselves to be guided by fear, and will be so overwhelmed with it that they won’t question who it hurts or whether it’s even real. So far, they’re not wrong. We’re still seeing pushback, including from large corporate entities, against discrimination when it’s aimed at LGB people and same-sex marriage — for instance, we see Disney and Marvel threatening to boycott Georgia if it follows through with a “religious freedom” bill that protects pastors from having to perform same-sex marriages, among other things.
So far, we haven’t seen the same kind of top-down resistance to bills that primarily target trans women, like North Carolina’s. The people pushing for these bills are relying on the fact that the larger LGB community won’t mobilize in response to them or call for opposition the way they do when legislators target them — let’s not prove them right.
