Last month we covered the new rules in Charlotte, North Carolina which would force businesses and public facilities to open their bathrooms, locker rooms and showers to anyone based on the gender they “identify as” rather than their natural chromosomal structure. At the time, Governor Pat McCrory indicated that moving forward with such a plan to please the Social Justice Warriors would result in action by the state government. Well, that day arrived rather quickly. (Washington Post)

The North Carolina legislature on Wednesday passed a sweeping bill overturning gay and transgender protections at the local level and requiring students to use public restrooms that correspond to their biological sex.

Gov. Pat McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor, signed the bill hours later, according to the Associated Press.

State lawmakers pushed the measure in response to a nondiscrimination ordinance adopted in the city of Charlotte that, among other things, allowed people to use the bathroom that matched with their gender identity. Legislators said immediate action was necessary to protect children and women from sexual predators who might pose as transgender to gain access to women’s restrooms.

As is usual in most of these cases, the coverage provided by Sandhya Somashekhar at the Post is as blatantly biased as it could possibly be. The article is peppered with all of the usual buzzwords and phrases, such as “gay and transgender protections” rather than addressing the real issues at hand. As I noted last month, the Charlotte ordinance didn’t even mention any actual protections, such as preventing discrimination in employment or related areas, focusing solely on the favorite menu items of the Social Justice Warriors; namely trying to force their choices on the rest of society regardless of accepted standards of privacy.

There was also no hint of compromise in the ordinance, which could have been accomplished simply by insisting that single use, unisex facilities be provided. (It’s an expensive solution which can be crippling to small businesses, but it would have at least provided options.) Instead, the city chose to mandate the opening of women’s bathrooms, locker rooms and showers to any male who chose to claim to be a woman. The locals were having none of it and now the state has taken action to prevent such mandates even in the face of politically correct boycott threats.

Rather than yet again dwelling on the social disorder surrounding these maneuvers by liberal advocates, we should probably focus on the science behind it. (A crazy idea, I know.) The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) recently released a new set of guidelines which hammer home the fundamental difference between the genders and how these questions need to be dealt with. Here are a couple of the key takeaways.

1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: “XY” and “XX” are genetic markers of health – not genetic markers of a disorder. The norm for human design is to be conceived either male or female. Human sexuality is binary by design with the obvious purpose being the reproduction and flourishing of our species. This principle is self-evident. The exceedingly rare disorders of sex development (DSDs), including but not limited to testicular feminization and congenital adrenal hyperplasia, are all medically identifiable deviations from the sexual binary norm, and are rightly recognized as disorders of human design. Individuals with DSDs do not constitute a third sex.¹

2. No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one. No one is born with an awareness of themselves as male or female; this awareness develops over time and, like all developmental processes, may be derailed by a child’s subjective perceptions, relationships, and adverse experiences from infancy forward. People who identify as “feeling like the opposite sex” or “somewhere in between” do not comprise a third sex. They remain biological men or biological women.^2,3,4

The ACP is a smaller professional association than the American Academy of Pediatrics, but the group of doctors involved formed largely in response to the dangerous trends in their profession where medical professionals have begun kowtowing to pressure from the SJW movement and speaking their language even when it presents risks to patients. They obviously focus primarily on the needs of at risk children, but the fundamental information available at the link applies to people of all ages and should be kept in mind as our legislative and legal systems wrestle with this debate.

UPDATE:

The Governor released the following statement along with the signing of the bill.

“The basic expectation of privacy in the most personal of settings, a restroom or locker room, for each gender was violated by government overreach and intrusion by the mayor and city council of Charlotte. This radical breach of trust and security under the false argument of equal access not only impacts the citizens of Charlotte but people who come to Charlotte to work, visit or play. This new government regulation defies common sense and basic community norms by allowing, for example, a man to use a woman’s bathroom, shower or locker room.

“While local municipalities have important priorities working to oversee police, fire, water and sewer, zoning, roads, and transit, the mayor and city council took action far out of its core responsibilities. As a result, I have signed legislation passed by a bipartisan majority to stop this breach of basic privacy and etiquette which was to go into effect April 1. Although other items included in this bill should have waited until regular session, this bill does not change existing rights under state or federal law.

“It is now time for the city of Charlotte elected officials and state elected officials to get back to working on the issues most important to our citizens.”