End in sight: Legislature seems ready to repeal controversial HB2

The brouhaha over the supposed right of transgender people to use the restroom of their gender identity instead of their anatomical gender might soon be over.

Legislators seem ready to repeal the state law that requires transgender people to use the restroom of their biological sex now that the Charlotte City Council has voted to repeal its local law that opened the doors, so to speak, for transgender people to use the restroom of their choice.

It was the Charlotte ordinance that led legislators to enact the law known as House Bill 2. Leading lawmakers have said for months that they would consider repealing HB2 if Charlotte would do away with its law.

We are not sure how to take this turn of events. We still believe that men and women should use the public restroom corresponding to their birth gender. Men dressed as women should not be allowed to use the women's restroom, period, and vice versa.

But politics is politics, and if Republican legislators have struck a deal that will put the issue to rest, we suppose we should support it. But it sticks in our craw that lawmakers are compromising their principles for expediency's sake.

Published in Editorials on December 20, 2016 9:50 AM