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9 Cold Hard Facts: HB2 Was Never About 'Public Safety'

Nine Real-Life Reasons Why So-Called 'Bathroom Bills' Aren't About Protecting the Public

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Over and over again we hear high profile defenders of North Carolina’s HB2and bills like it claim that it is a matter of “public safety.” Here are nine cold, hard facts that demonstrate why HB2 was never about public safety – and always was really an attack on transgender people.

1. Law enforcement officials say it isn’t about public safety.

Public accommodations laws just like Charlotte’s have existed for decades inover 200 cities and 17 states. When law enforcement officials have been asked if those laws endanger public safety, they have been unanimous. You can read literally dozens of testimonials from police spokesmen, commissioners, and chiefs in states with NDOs here, here, and here. Most of these statements come from police officers in conservative states like Texas, Florida, and Iowa. Minneapolis has had an NDO since 1993, and police spokesman John Elder stated that it is “not even remotely” a problem.

2. Victims’ advocates say it isn’t about public safety

The National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women and 250 other local, state, and national organizations that advocate on behalf of survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence in opposing legislation that bans transgender people from public restrooms, or other bills that codify discrimination against transgender people.

The joint statement reads:

“Those who are pushing these proposals have claimed that these proposals are necessary for public safety and to prevent sexual violence against women and children. As rape crisis centers, shelters, and other service providers who work each and every day to meet the needs of all survivors and reduce sexual assault and domestic violence throughout society, we speak from experience and expertise when we state that these claims are false.”

3. Businesses say it isn’t about public safety

While retailing giant Target has been attacked for reiterating their transgender inclusive policy, the truth is that 75 percent of all Fortune 500companies have similar policies allowing transgender employees and customers to use facilities in accordance with their gender identities. The Daily Beast highlighted how boycotting every transgender friendly business in America would essentially require you to lock yourself in a closet and die of starvation.

Think of it this way: most corporate lawyers are very risk averse. If they thought that transgender inclusive policies were likely to result in sexual assault and potential liability, they would certainly advice their clients not to institute them. One can infer from the 75 percent figure that the vast majority of companies, and their lawyers, who looked at this issue decided that it wasn’t a realistic risk.

Conservatives frequently say that the market should decide. And it has.

4. 17 states, DC, and 200+ cities say it isn’t about public safety

Public accommodations laws that include transgender people have been around since 1993. City managers, administrators, and mayors’ offices who have implemented public accommodations non-discrimination ordinances have not found them to be an issue.

“To our knowledge, Miami-Dade County has not experienced an increase in sexual assaults or rape in women’s restrooms since the passing of the new ordinance or as a result of it. Nor do we have any knowledge of men pretending to be women to enter women’s restrooms,” says Mike Hernandez, Director of Communications for Miami-Dade County Office of the Mayor.

“Austin incorporated gender identity into our non-discrimination ordinance in 2004; the only notable change is that those who are transgender have a legal remedy should they be denied a public accommodation… I can say that I have not heard of such incidents in my years of service on the Austin City Council,” adds Kathie Tovo, mayor pro tem of the Austin City Council

5. Non-partisan fact checkers say it isn’t about public safety

Politifact is a non-partisan media outlet that impartially examines claims and statements by politicians. When they looked at the claim by North Carolina Lt. Governor Dan Forest that Charlotte’s ordinance would create a “bathroom free for all” that endangered public safety, they rated it as False.

Conversely, Politifact rated the statement that “There have not been any public safety issues” in cities that allow transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender they identify as,” as Mostly True, stating:

“We haven’t found any instances of criminals convicted of using transgender protections as cover in the United States. Neither have any left-wing groups or right-wing groups.”

6. If it was about public safety, why did they exempt businesses?

We’ve established that actual experts on non-discrimination ordinances all agree that they do not endanger public safety.

But let’s suppose that the people who passed HB2 might really have believed this myth. If they did, why did they let private businesses (like Target) continue to set their own policies? If they thought that transgender inclusion would lead to sexual assaults of women and children, did they believe that it somehow becomes an “acceptable risk” as long as it’s not on government property? In their minds, is the principle of laissez fair capitalism more important than the lives of the women and children they claim to cherish so much?

Or, is it more likely they knew it was never about public safety, and thus didn’t want to interfere with the corporations donating to their campaigns?

7. If it was about public safety, why did they exempt janitors?

Ostensibly, HB2 was about preventing people from pretending to be transgender in order to gain access to women’s bathrooms for unlawful purposes. So, they banned transgender people, but put in an exemption that would (using their own logic) allow anyone pretending to be a janitor to do the exact same thing. Ironically, janitors attract far less attention, and are far less stigmatized than transgender people, making such a ruse more probable.

Thus, if this was really about public safety, and the authors really believed that people would play dress up in order to do nefarious things, why did they include a loophole for janitorial staff? One explanation is that in their fertile imaginations, they live in a world where people would be perfectly willing to pretend to be transgender to do nefarious things, but the same perpetrator would never pretend to be a janitor in order to do the exact same thing.

Or, a more plausible explanation is that this was never about safety, and all about targeting transgender people.

8. If it was about public safety, why didn’t they legislate against actual sex offenders?

If you were going to write a bill that tried to protect the public against sexual predators, wouldn’t you want to include people who are actually registered sex offenders in the bill’s language? It would make a lot of sense. Yet, nothing in HB2 actually targets sex offenders. If this were really about safety, why are legislators terrified of transgender people using bathrooms at the same time as children, but a-ok with kids sharing a bathroom with people who have actually been convicted of sexual assault?

Unless, this was never actually about public safety at all…

9. If HB2 was never about going after transgender people, why are anti-transgender hate groups its biggest backers?

So who are the people backing HB2? Lots and lots of Southern Poverty Law Center designated hate groups. The Family Research Council is one of HB2’s biggest backers, and has also put out a manifesto describing their five point plan to drive transgender people out of public life using legislation targeting transgender people. Liberty Counsel (another hate group), has offered todefend HB2 in court pro bono. Meanwhile, Liberty Counsel’s President hasthreatened she might shoot any transgender people she finds in a bathroom.

The Alliance Defending Freedom appears to have written the model legislation for HB2. They have a long history of anti-LGBT animus, and have been pushing dozens of anti-transgender bills across the country. These bills include jail time, multi-thousand dollar fines, and registry as a sex offender for any transgender person who uses a bathroom of the sex with which they identify with no exceptions.

Thus, it is not a coincidence that the organizations most in favor of HB2 also want to legislate transgender people out of existence, shoot them, or jail them for existing. It also makes the claims that HB2 is about public safety, and not about harming transgender people, all the more unbelievable.

Not that it ever was, especially to those of us in the process of being legislated out of public life.