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Y’all means all

 
North Carolina is home to the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway, the sandy Outer Banks and prejudiced and incompetent government officials.
It’s 2016, and in today’s world, gays are as open as ever before. Athletes, CEOs, business owners and others have openly stated that they are gay. This is a great thing because, as humans, we are becoming more accepting of what is different and unique. The United States has made same-sex marriage legal, which allows for huge steps toward the full acceptance of homosexuals.
But, there is still a group that is not so accepted.
North Carolina recently passed House Bill 2, better known as HB2 or “the bathroom bill.” HB2 has created controversy, with people around the country arguing its pros and cons, and could be one of the most controversial bills in the past 100 years. There are two major parts to the bill. The first part deals with bathrooms.
Before jumping into the specifics, there’s a bit of important context: in February, the city of Charlotte, North Carolina passed an ordinance allowing transgender individuals to use whichever bathroom they associated themselves with. Although passing the ordinance was a great idea, it caused some controversy because people argued that perverts would pretend to dress up and do terrible things when going into women’s restrooms.
In response to Charlotte’s ordinance, the state of North Carolina passed HB2. The state bill declares that every person must go into the bathroom that matches his or her biological sex and thus the gender they were born as. Personally, I know someone who was born male but now presents as female. She now has to use the men’s room even though she lives as a woman. Is that fair? The whole situation can become very confusing.
People have to remember that there is a difference between transgender people who go through gender reassignment surgery and those who do not or have not yet. According to HB2, those who are transgender are labeled as a male if they were born a male, same with females. Those who have had the surgery are free to use the bathroom they prefer.
The second part of HB2 is the most controversial. The federal government has actually stated that it was unconstitutional and that North Carolina needs to repeal the law. This part prevents local governments from enacting non-discriminatory laws, meaning local governments have to give up their power to the state government.
I live in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which is about an hour north of Charlotte. My community has embraced transgender individuals and is fighting against HB2. Is it fair that our city can’t pass a law giving these individuals the same rights as everyone else?
The problem with HB2 is that it does not represent the state and the values of those who live in the state. It is embarrassing to watch my home state look idiotic because government officials are not accepting of those who are different from them.
#ThisIsNotUs trended on social media because citizens of North Carolina are tired of the unnecessary discrimination of transgender people. The decisions made do not represent the state as a whole, and people across the country are forming opinions about North Carolina citizens’ morals.
I am in a few FGCU GroupMe chats for the freshman class of 2020, and many people have called me names and gotten into arguments with me because they think that just because I am from North Carolina, I hate transgender people. People who don’t know me have judged me based on the fact that I live in a state where a group of mostly religious white men decided that those different from them needed to have their rights taken away. This is unfair, and everyone is suffering for it.
HB2 is bad. It is bad because it discriminates against a group of people who just want to live their lives like everyone else. It’s sad that even though we are all humans, we can’t accept one another just because we share different views, opinions or even sexual preferences.
There is a simple solution to fixing the issues in place. In regards to bathrooms: all new and existing buildings should be required to have a single transgender bathroom. This way, those who are biologically male but present as women can use the bathroom without making anyone uncomfortable.
As for local governments, they deserve to have the right to make their own non-discriminatory laws. Each community is different and should be allowed to express its morals through the laws it passes. If Charlotte and Winston-Salem want to be welcoming and non-discriminatory, then they should have the right to do so.
This bill is not how most North Carolinians think. House Bill 2 is a disgrace to my state as well as our country. The bill is an example of the past America, the one that did not accept those who were different. America is the land of the free, and our Bill of Rights helps to protect people from being discriminated against. We need to move forward as a country and stop passing bills like this.
If we don’t unify as a country, we will fall apart and be left in the dust by other countries that don’t care about how you dress and what your skin color is but, rather, care about taking care of their hardworking citizens and making sure everyone is equal.
HB2 needs to go because in North Carolina, “y’all” means “all,” and no one should be left out.

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