Margaret Spellings, University of North Carolina’s Anti-Gay President, Will Enforce Anti-LGBTQ Law

[KamaAina]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/04/08/margaret_spellings_university_of_north_carolina_president_enforces_hb_2.html

Margaret Spellings, president of the University of North Carolina, is not a friend of the LGBTQ community. Installed by the hyper-partisan UNC Board of Governors through a de facto coup, Spellings served as secretary of education under President George W. Bush, an office she infamously used to suppress depictions of same-sex couples on children’s shows. When appointed UNC president, Spellings maintained her anti-gay stance, dismissively describing homosexuality as a “lifestyle.”

So it was no surprise when announced that UNC will comply with North Carolina’s vicious new anti-LGBTQ law, HB 2. Although the law doesn’t nullify UNC’s LGBT nondiscrimination policy, it does explicitly bar trans students from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity. In response, Spellings issued guidelines to put UNC in compliance with the statute, declaring that “University institutions must require every multiple-occupancy bathroom and changing facility to be designated for and used only by persons based on their biological sex.”

This rule effectively excludes most trans UNC students from using the correct bathroom. HB 2 defines sex as “stated on a person’s birth certificate.” But in North Carolina, you cannot change the sex on your birth certificate unless you receive gender reassignment surgery, a procedure which many trans people forego for medical, ideological, or financial concerns. Other states, like Tennessee, explicitly bar trans people from changing their birth certificate sex—even if they receive gender reassignment surgery. So a trans UNC student born in Tennessee, for example, is now banned from public bathrooms for life....

Spellings, then, had to choose between two conflicting sets of laws, state and federal. One mandated discrimination; the other banned it. Unsurprisingly, Spellings chose the former. If any UNC students were still uncertain about Spellings’ views on diversity and inclusion, her actions related to HB 2 should be clarifying. The UNC president remains loyal to the legislature that pushed her into office. Trans students are merely collateral damage.

I didn't think there was anything that could make me root for Duke!

[Warpy]

1. Unless Chapel Hill has changed radically since I left

Spelling can expect to get her office glitter bombed at least once a week.

[mnhtnbb]

2. Students at campuses throughout the UNC system are protesting.

There have been protests in Charlotte, Chapel Hill, Appalachian State, Pembroke, Wilmington
so far. I imagine there are others in the works or I just haven't heard about them.

She is a total Rovian/Bush bot and I wish we could tar/feather her and send her back to Texas.

[Initech]

3. So glad they didn't win the tournament!

Fuck you Margaret Spellings!

[tenderfoot]

4. I find it interesting that Caitlyn Jenner hasn't spoken out against these laws?

Wouldn't something like this concern her?

[joeybee12]

5. Villanova!

I didn't realize where this cretin from the Bush mis-administration ended up.

[HuckleB]

6. Exactly! -eom-