North Carolina lawmakers are poised this week to vote on repealing their state’s controversial bathroom law. Federalist senior writer Mary Katharine Ham joined CNN’s “At This Hour” on Wednesday to discuss whether this was a fight worth having for North Carolina.
This law requires transgender people to use the restroom corresponding to their birth certificate in state-run facilities, and allows private establishments to set their own rules. It was passed in response to a Charlotte city ordinance that required businesses to open all their bathrooms to all comers.
“That was how this started, and they didn’t have the authority to do it,” Ham said. “It is this message from the cultural left that says, ‘If you have any questions about this sort of radical change in the way we’re doing things in our society, then you are a hater. You are the haterest hater that ever hated, and you will shut up now.'”
Ham said this battle in the culture war was probably one reason North Carolina voted for Donald Trump. “That kind of cultural bullying led people to look to, frankly, another cultural bully in Donald Trump who was willing to stand up against it,” she said. “Many people in North Carolina were like ‘Why are we talking about this and why is this so urgent?'”
Watch the full segment here: