Donald Trump flip-flops on North Carolina anti-transgender law
Comments on HB 2 contradict earlier statements characterized as supportive of transgender people
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has flip-flopped on North Carolina’s anti-LGBT HB 2 law, which requires transgender people only use restrooms or facilities that correspond with their biological or assigned sex at birth, among other things.
Asked about whether he supported HB 2 in a video interview with the Raleigh News & Observer, Trump said: “Well, I’m going with the state. They know what’s going on, they see what’s happening, and, generally speaking, I’m with the state on things like this. I’ve spoken with your governor, I’ve spoken with a lot of different people, and I’m going with the state.”
Trump’s statement reverses an earlier stance he took. During a Today Show appearance in April, he bemoaned the backlash that North Carolina received from the business community after HB 2’s passage. The GOP candidate suggested that the state should just “leave it the way it is” in terms of laws governing transgender people’s restroom use.
“There have been very few complaints the way it is,” Trump said in that appearance. “People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate, there has been so little trouble.” He also said he would “be fine with” Caitlyn Jenner “using any bathroom she chooses” if she were to visit Trump Towers.
Because of his stance at the time, Trump won high praise, particularly from gay conservatives. Chris Barron, the co-founder of the now-defunct LGBT Republican group GOProud, has called Trump “the most pro-gay Republican nominee ever,” with many other conservatives echoing that sentiment, including Jenner, the openly gay pundit Milo Yiannopoulos, and Gregory Angelo, president of the Log Cabin Republicans (though the group has not made an official endorsement for president). Trump even attempted to portray himself as more of an ally to the LGBT community than presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in a speech given following the Orlando terror attack at Pulse, a gay nightclub.
But other LGBT activists were not just going to let Trump’s change of heart on HB 2 — which some have speculated is part of pandering to religious conservatives — slide.
“Let’s be clear, Donald Trump just gave one of the nation’s worst laws for LGBTQ people a full-throated endorsement,” JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president for policy and political affairs at The Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. “By buddying up with Governor Pat McCrory on the deeply discriminatory HB 2, Donald Trump is unabashedly embracing a dangerous law that takes away the civil rights of LGBTQ people and has cost North Carolina not only its reputation but millions of dollars in economic losses.”
“Donald Trump’s garbled comments on HB 2, the worst anti-LGBT law in the nation, show that he does not grasp the issues critical to the state of North Carolina,” said N.C. State Rep. Chris Sgro (D-Guilford), who is also the executive director of Equality NC.
“Over and over, he has shown himself to be unqualified as a presidential candidate, and no friend to gay and transgender people,” Sgro added. “We must resoundingly reject his ill-informed discrimination in November.”
In response to criticism from what he calls the “LGBT left,” Joseph R. Murray, II, the openly gay administrator of the Facebook page LGBTrump, defended Trump, saying he had not contradicted his earlier comments.
“The LGBT left is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill,” Murray said in a statement. “What Trump said in April and what Trump is saying now are not contradictory. In April he was suggesting that private business owners — such as himself — should make the call. The City of Charlotte wanted to make the call for all private business in its city limits. Big difference.
“Furthermore, as I wrote in USA Today, transgender rights and gay rights are not synonymous. Whether two men can adopt or say ‘I do’ is completely different as to whether biological men or boys can shower with girls and women,” Murray continued. “The LGBT left wants to lump all of us together for political and profiteering purposes. Trump’s bravery to speak out against radical Islam to protect the gay community — and Hillary’s refusal to do so — jeopardizes this dynamic. Until the LGBT left realizes that Sharia law is a greater threat to the LGBT community than [the] North Carolina law, they are jeopardizing the safety of the community they purport to represent.”
This story was updated to include comments from Joseph R. Murray, II, of LGBTrump.
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