North Carolina's absurd anti-discrimination bill isn't the final word

I love North Carolina. I’m not a native, but I’ve been here for a while now. The midwesterner in me still thrills at the possibility of a day trip to the mountains or the beach. I regularly try to convince my friends to move here. It’s a great place, I tell them … except for the state legislature. 

Last week, the legislature outdid itself in embarrassing the state in front of the rest of the country, a feat it has perfected in recent years. On Wednesday, in the span of just a few hours, and with no time for public discussion, lawmakers pushed through a bill [pdf] that legalizes discrimination against LGBTQ people. The governor signed it into law that night. 

The bill was a response to a Charlotte city ordinance allowing people to use the public restroom of the gender with which they identify. Apparently having no other problems to tackle (the rate of childhood hunger here is among the highest in the nation; teacher pay is among the lowest), elected officials called an emergency session to block the ordinance.