Out singer Elton John on Tuesday
criticized North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory's continued support
for a law that targets the LGBT community.
House Bill 2 blocks cities from
enacting LGBT protections and prohibits transgender people from using
the bathroom of their choice in government buildings, including
schools.
In
an op-ed titled North Carolina Governor's Ignorance of Trans
Identity, John points out that McCrory signed the bill into law
after admitting that he had never met a transgender person.
“Although McCrory later walked his
statement back, the message he sent was clear: the actual experiences
of transgender people have no place in a debate over their basic
rights,” John wrote.
“This brand of ignorance deliberately
shuts out the perspective of an already marginalized community. It's
dangerous, and it goes beyond bathrooms.”
“The failure of McCrory and other
lawmakers to see this is a failure of compassion, a failure to
recognize the difficult and frequently unwelcoming world transgender
people must navigate every day, stigmatized by the fear and ignorance
of others.”
“McCrory and others who support these
discriminatory bathroom bills need to reverse course, but moreover,
they need a lesson in compassion. 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,” John added.