The city of Charlotte, North Carolina is considering an LGBT nondiscrimination ordnance and Governor Pat McCrory is none too happy about it.
McCrory reportedly told city council members that if they ban discrimination, he will swiftly call upon the state legislature to bring discrimination back because transgender women may use the women's restroom.
(spoiler: they've already been using it)
Repeating the popular conservative myth that helped defeat Houston’s LGBT protections last fall, McCrory warned in an email that “changing basic restroom and locker room norms” will somehow put women and children at risk. “This shift in policy could also create major public safety issues by putting citizens in possible danger from deviant actions by individuals taking improper advantage of a bad policy. Also, this action of allowing a person with male anatomy, for example, to use a female restroom or locker room will most likely cause immediate State legislative intervention which I would support as governor.”
I certainly do not mean to make light of the situation by referring to these as "rogue penises," because transgender women should not be reduced to their genitalia and that is the problem here. Governor McCrory considers the presence of a penis in a women's restroom, even if it's attached to a woman, to be a grave threat to public safety which calls for "immediate State legislative intervention!"
Governor McCrory has specifically singled out transgender women with "male anatomy" and labeled them as a threat while paying no attention to the existence and presence of transgender men who or may not have a penis. As for what makes male anatomy uniquely terrifying to men like McCrory, we can only speculate. I see their fear of transgender women as an extension of, or a more severe form, of homophobia. Lawmakers who've made it their personal mission to codify discrimination against transgender people are deathly afraid they might be attracted to a transgender woman.
Rather than confront their own personal conflicts, they project their worst fears onto the most vulnerable people among us who have virtually no safety or protection wherever they go. Transgender women who are murdered can't even count on police departments to give a shit or rely on the press to not misgender them.
I was going to insert a joke here about the legislature having nothing better to do, but tackling discrimination is something better they could doing. Rather than enshrine discrimination, Governor McCrory and the state legislature should support the Charlotte city council.
Socially conservative lawmakers pose a much greater threat to public safety than anyone. You're more likely to encounter of one of them in the restroom and, personally, they make me uncomfortable. They're the ones who are hyper-concerned about what's in your pants.