Though North Carolina Family Action claims to be a nonpartisan, “research and education” organization, the group has been actively engaged in a harmful, discriminatory robocall campaign spreading misinformation in an attempt to defeat an upcoming LGBT non-discrimination ordinance.
The calls, which have been going out to thousands of voters living in Charlotte, claim that supporting the ordinance will lead to policy changes that will allow men and women to use the opposite sex's bathrooms. The messaging is a transphobic attempt to instill fear of a law that would, in actuality, block public establishments from refusing patrons because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. In those instances where people were harassed or denied service, they would be able to file complaints with some hope of legal recourse.
“This does not allow men to go into women's bathrooms or women to go into men's,” said Scott Bishop, chairman of the Mecklenburg LGBT Political Action Committee, told the Charlotte Observer. “Transgender women are women, and transgender men are men. … That's where the misunderstanding is – who transgender people are. A lot of public education needs to take place.”
Opponents to the ordinance plan to gather at a rally next week and are already working themselves into a delusional frenzy claiming that transgender people will be uniquely positioned to become sexual predators should the law be put into effect. The fervency with which the law's opponents are attacking North Carolina's queer community, explained Charlotte Business Guild president Chad Sevearance, is a diversionary tactic that could ultimately hurt the state economically.
“Fortune 500 companies believe that LGBT (employees) are the best and the brightest,” Sevearance told the Observer. “(Before coming to Charlotte), they'll be looking at how their people are going to be protected from discrimination.”