Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/732402
SEPTEMBER 28 - OCTOBER 4, 2016 UCW 11 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Proudly Serving Cumberland County & Surrounding Areas for over 19 years!! •HARDSCAPES •IRRIGATION •LANDSCAPING •SOD •LAWN MAINTENANCE •LANDSCAPE LIGHTING 1004 Cedar Creek Road • Fayetteville, NC 28312 Snowslandscapinglawncare.com • email: snowslandscape00@aol.com •HARDSCAPES •IRRIGATION •LANDSCAPING •SOD •LAWN MAINTENANCE •LANDSCAPE LIGHTING 1004 Cedar Creek Road • Fayetteville, NC 28312 Snowslandscapinglawncare.com • email: snowslandscape00@aol.com FREE ESTIMATES UP & COM I NG W EEKLY 'S UP & CO M ING W EEKL Y 'S North Carolinians love their basketball. Losing the ACC conference tournament because of the state's contentious HB2 bathroom bill may have persuaded Gov. Pat McCrory to take another look at this hot button issue. Rumors say the Governor may call the General Assembly back into session to reconsider HB2, which nullified Charlotte's expansion of its 1968 nondiscrimina- tion ordinance. Charlotte's 2016 anti-discrimination ordinance now covers familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. It has one provision that just didn't sit well with the conservatives in the General Assembly. It allows transgender people to use the bathroom and locker room of the sex with which they happen to identify. The General Assembly's version says you use the bathroom or locker room of the gender that's on your birth certificate. McCrory wasn't swayed by director Rob Reiner taking his movie-making business out of North Carolina in protest of HB2. PayPal, Deutsche Bank and music performers followed. But the governor and General Assembly weren't concerned with politically- motivated businesses and liberal entertainers. But when the NCAA canceled its championship games, followed by the ACC's March Madness tournament play and now possibly the CIAA — all sporting events tradition- ally held in the Tar Heel state — well, that's a bit much. Besides, the North Carolina Lodging and Restaurant Association sees food and lodging dollars disappearing. So it lobbied the governor to take a second look. Gov. McCrory's willingness to review HB2 hinged on Charlotte rescinding its version. Despite pressure from the business community, Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts said Charlotte doesn't have to do anything for the General Assembly to repeal HB2. I contacted her office last week and left a couple of questions. I asked if she knew then what she knows now about the economic hurt some businesses are facing because of the sanctions, would she still push through the ordinance in the same way or find a more diplomatic way. So far, no response from her Honor or anyone from her office. Roberts attended UNC-Chapel Hill on a scholarship, got her masters' from Johns Hopkins and the University of Toronto, then served as a minor diplomat in Mexico. A smart woman and former diplomat should have guessed how the General Assembly would react to the Charlotte ordinance. McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor, warned her of the General Assembly's reaction. She was also a standout athlete on the UNC women's volleyball team. That was back when only women used the women's locker rooms. So, what happens when Republicans and Democrats play party politics, and liberals and conservatives play Russian roulette, all at the expense of businesses trying to pros- per or just make ends meet? Good question! I saw Sen. Ben Clark this weekend. He told me the General Assembly must repeal HB2 if North Carolina is to recover from the resulting economic embargo. He said many of the Republicans who voted for the bill thought it was simply a bathroom issue. They did not realize there were riders attached restricting the anti-discriminatory protection for LGBT people, he said. "I don't know if the repeal (of HB2) will reverse any of the decisions by businesses to return, but it would stop anything else from leaving. We don't need to drag this out. HB2 should never have been sold as anything it wasn't," he said. Rep. Billy Richardson agrees. "We should start over and do it right. Repeal it and go back to the status quo. I've been assured those businesses (that left) would come back," he said. Fayetteville City Councilman Jim Arp, a Republican challenger to Democrat Richard- son's House seat, believes bottom-line business decisions will bring those companies back to North Carolina, which is currently in a strong and envious economic recovery. Former House Rep. Rick Glazier, who now heads the N.C. Justice Center, believes HB2 has done irreparable damage. "It's done generational damage, years of damage," he said. Although he believes recent setbacks such as the economics of tournaments leav- ing the state is recoverable. Glazier said there are Republicans in the House and Senate that want to revisit the issue. "There's just not enough of them." HB2 was the Legislature's direct response to Charlotte's unconstitutional (state con- stitution) actions to enact an ordinance for which it did not have the authority. Szoka said North Carolina is not a Home Rule state, a system of governance that grants broad authority to local governments. Instead, North Carolina is governed under Dillon's Rule where local authority is limited by the General Assembly and spelled out in the state's Constitution. To Szoka, the crux of the issue is keeping people who identify with another gender out of bathrooms, locker rooms or other changing facilities that do not coincide with the gender on their birth certificates. Despite the economic sanctions by some businesses and organizations, Szoka said he will stick to his principles on this matter. "If I'm tossed out of office over this, I'm fine with it. I'm not for sale." See CumberlandCAN.com website for a more in-depth version. HB2 and You by JASON BRADY OPINION