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North Carolina Restroom Law Becomes a Central Election Issue
New York Times ^ | April 25, 2016 | RICHARD FAUSSET

Posted on 04/25/2016 7:05:34 AM PDT by reaganaut1

HIGH POINT, N.C. — Parrish Clodfelter, a 79-year-old retiree who lives on a central North Carolina farm, professes opinions about transgender people that might get him fired if he worked for a multinational corporation, though for many here, they constitute simple country wisdom.

“A man wants to change to a woman, he’s got a mental problem,” Mr. Clodfelter said on Wednesday over lunch at Spiro’s Family Restaurant, where posters by the door advertised classes on carrying concealed weapons and a “Hillbilly Sunday” Pentecostal church service.

But Mr. Clodfelter has a different kind of problem. As a longtime Republican, he wants to support Pat McCrory, North Carolina’s Republican governor, in his re-election bid. At the same time, Mr. Clodfelter is worried about the boycotts and lost jobs resulting from the law the governor signed in March that limits transgender bathroom access and eliminates antidiscrimination protections for gay and transgender people.

If the backlash continues, Mr. Clodfelter said, he will consider voting for Mr. McCrory’s Democratic opponent, Roy Cooper, who supports the law’s repeal.

“I’m afraid if they don’t change it,” he said, “it’ll hurt the state.”

Even before the law tapped into a national debate about transgender rights, privacy and political correctness, North Carolina, the rare Southern state that is evenly split between liberals and conservatives, was considered to be up for grabs in the November presidential race, particularly if Donald J. Trump tops the Republican ticket.

Now the law, and the backlash against it, have introduced a different kind of volatile energy to state politics here, roiling a governor’s race that could be the nation’s most competitive. It is also affecting other crucial contests, including that of Senator Richard Burr, who hopes to fend off a vigorous Democratic challenge from Deborah K. Ross, [former state director of the ACLU].

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Politics/Elections; US: North Carolina
KEYWORDS: bathrooms
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I hope conservatives will be energized in NC and that conservatives across the country show solidarity with North Carolina and Mississippi. Conservatives ought to be able to win on the issue of keeping men out of women's bathrooms.
1 posted on 04/25/2016 7:05:34 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

It should be up to the states to decide this stuff.

Honestly, I hope the Presidential candidates just leave this alone.

Republicans are being painted by this type of stuff. It is bad for the party, and we continually walk right into these traps.

Its a stupid strawman. I wish we republicans would call it what it is.


2 posted on 04/25/2016 7:07:59 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (Ask Bernie supporters two questions: Who is rich. Who decides. In the past, that meant who died.)
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To: reaganaut1
Conservatives ought to be able to win on the issue of keeping men out of women's bathrooms.

Of course, its the highest on my list of priorities.

3 posted on 04/25/2016 7:08:33 AM PDT by johniegrad
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To: reaganaut1

Big media telling America what to think. If I were a candidate I would pass on this “issue” and watch their heads explode.


4 posted on 04/25/2016 7:09:57 AM PDT by John 3_19-21 (We tried voting Republican = fail. Tried conservative = fail. let see how voting sledgehammer works!)
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To: reaganaut1
Mr. Clodfelter is a gutless old buzzard. If he lives in fear of the consequences of opposing the sexual deviant supremacist establishment, then he is already a dhimmi and not an American.
5 posted on 04/25/2016 7:10:27 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (ObaMao: Fake America, Fake Messiah, Fake Black man. How many fakes can you fit into one Zer0?)
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To: Vermont Lt

Agree. Anyone running for President should just say ‘it is one of a multitude of issues that should be decided by each state’. Period. No more dividing people by ridiculous social issues.


6 posted on 04/25/2016 7:12:40 AM PDT by originalbuckeye ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell)
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To: Vigilanteman

Mr Clodfelter and Mr Trump are in agreement. Wonder how many other things they are in agreement on.


7 posted on 04/25/2016 7:14:23 AM PDT by traderrob6
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To: reaganaut1

It may seem like a no brainier. It isn’t. Be very careful what you wish for. Enacting laws gets you taken to court and then the activist judges decide.

Hulu can hammer social issues all you want but the winning issues in elections historically have been taxes, budgets, crime, and now immigration


8 posted on 04/25/2016 7:15:20 AM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: reaganaut1

The meme of keeping male perverts out of women’s restrooms is one, I think, that makes sense to most people.

It also presents a convenient brush with which to tar anyone who opposes the NC law.

So, NBA—You have no problem with a 45-year old man (XY) in a dress standing and urinating in front of a 6-year old girl (XX). Let’s have a look at what’s on the computers of the owners, management, and players of the Charlotte Hornets.


9 posted on 04/25/2016 7:15:43 AM PDT by Arm_Bears (Rope. Tree. Politician/Journalist. Some assembly required.)
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To: Vermont Lt

And that is why it is thrown out there

Unfortunately in some places country slow really is stupid


10 posted on 04/25/2016 7:16:29 AM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: reaganaut1

I can’t believe that the right of perverts to pee in ladies toilets is a “campaign issue.” America has become the home of retardism. What a sewer.


11 posted on 04/25/2016 7:16:57 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (The "college" snowflakes need to check their American privilege. Everything isn't a right.)
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To: reaganaut1

There are like what... 70k trans in all of America... of those 70k maybe 50k are dudes in dresses...

This is not an important issue. Let the states decide and move on.


12 posted on 04/25/2016 7:17:21 AM PDT by SteveSCH
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To: Vermont Lt

“It should be up to the states to decide this stuff.

Honestly, I hope the Presidential candidates just leave this alone.

Republicans are being painted by this type of stuff. It is bad for the party, and we continually walk right into these traps.

Its a stupid strawman. I wish we republicans would call it what it is.”

It should be up to the states to determine the parameters of marriage, and whether one must buy insurance, and if certain drugs should be legal, and so on and so on....but increasingly it isn’t left to states.

Sine the left is unwilling to allow states to determine these issues, we fight with one hand tied behind our back when we restrain ourselves with a respect for Federalism.

Corporations (and even other state governments like California) that want to “wage war” on social conservatives need to have it handed back in spades. Tax them, cut them off from markets in certain states while giving their competitors special tax benefits. @#$ dammit, get mad! But definitely do not just “leave this issue alone.”


13 posted on 04/25/2016 7:17:34 AM PDT by Bishop_Malachi (Liberal Socialism - A philosophy which advocates spreading a low standard of living equally.)
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To: Vermont Lt
Republicans are being painted by this type of stuff. It is bad for the party, and we continually walk right into these traps.

Its a stupid strawman. I wish we republicans would call it what it is.

Exactly...

Transgender population is under 1% between .3 and .5 percent of the population...

The chance of meeting a transgender person is remote at best and even more remote in a public bathroom...

It seems like the main concern are child molesters and pedophiles using the law to ply their sickness is overstated...

Sure it's possible, by these people tend to prey on family members and people they know, not in a public bathroom...

Which in most cases would be a quick trip to jail...

14 posted on 04/25/2016 7:17:54 AM PDT by Popman (Christ alone: My Cornerstone...)
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To: Vigilanteman

Anyone who has lived eight decades is not gutless.

You may not like his opinion but tell you what, he is thoughtful and paying attention.

His priorities are different than yours. He may well be right.


15 posted on 04/25/2016 7:18:53 AM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: reaganaut1

How would anyone know if a transgendered man is in a women’s bathroom?? Would he pee in the sink?? No he would use a stall. “Man hands”? Who is going to walk up and accuse him of “man hands”?? Probably no one.


16 posted on 04/25/2016 7:19:01 AM PDT by dynoman (Objectivity is the essence of intelligence. - Marilyn vos Savant)
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To: reaganaut1

It’s a very commonsense law. If a person wants to surgically change themselves there are a lot of steps along the way and their bodies never make the hormones that help make a woman a woman. The brain structure won’t be right.

On top of that, like the man in the article said, it’s a mental illness to want to change your gender. The people on the Left who are bent out if shape about this, I just look at them with pity because they are completely irrational about it. One the ither side, I feel sorry for the women who have to put up with transgendered men in their restrooms in the bigger, more liberal cities.


17 posted on 04/25/2016 7:19:15 AM PDT by Crucial
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To: FlingWingFlyer
I can’t believe that the right of perverts to pee in ladies toilets is a “campaign issue.”

It's not. The Slimes just wants you to think that it is.

18 posted on 04/25/2016 7:19:17 AM PDT by johniegrad
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To: reaganaut1

It’s a very commonsense law. If a person wants to surgically change themselves there are a lot of steps along the way and their bodies never make the hormones that help make a woman a woman. The brain structure won’t be right.

On top of that, like the man in the article said, it’s a mental illness to want to change your gender. The people on the Left who are bent out if shape about this, I just look at them with pity because they are completely irrational about it. One the ither side, I feel sorry for the women who have to put up with transgendered men in their restrooms in the bigger, more liberal cities.


19 posted on 04/25/2016 7:19:46 AM PDT by Crucial
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To: Arm_Bears

Like Apostle Paul says, the law doesn’t conation the power to live it. A law won’t stop transgendered men from using woman’s bathrooms, nor keep “perverts” out.


20 posted on 04/25/2016 7:21:13 AM PDT by dynoman (Objectivity is the essence of intelligence. - Marilyn vos Savant)
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