ISBL Asshat of the Week: North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory

Up there in neighbor to the north, North Carolina that is, Republican Governor Pat McCrory has opted to pass over protections for LGBT workers when he signed a new executive order that bars employment discrimination for state workers on the basis of “race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, disability and genetic information.”

Let me make this queer: he wants to make sure that no one is discriminated against in the state’s hiring policies unless those people are LGBT and then let the discrimination roll!!

And while North Carolina LGBT advocates have condemned the policy, and are demanding an explanation, a McCrory spokes-tool, Ryan Tronovitch, claims McCrory’s new executive order mirrors federal employment language which already includes protections for LGBT workers.

Except that isn’t true.

Still, McCrory declared, as he signed the order, “This order ensures fairness and encourages people to work for state government. Insisting on nondiscrimination will strengthen our state and demonstrate that we value diversity of thought and each of our citizens’ unique backgrounds.”

Nondiscrimination, though, does not apply to sexual orientation or gender identity. So, really, it’s not nondiscrimination, it’s discrimination.

North Carolina — one of 29 states were LGBT employees can be fired based solely on their sexual orientation and gender identity — currently has no employment protections for LGBT workers. And efforts to pass employment protections for state workers and teachers have consistently stalled in the Republican –controlled state legislature because, well, gay.

Workers tied directly to the federal government are already protected under pre-existing presidential executive orders and rulings from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and last week President Obama said he would issue an executive order more clearly prohibiting discrimination in federal employment on the basis of gender identity.

It might be a tough sell in North Carolina because the Governor, and his flunkies, don’t seem to know what the law entails, or what it even means. See, when asked to comment on the lack of employment protection for North Carolina LGBT employees, McCrory Deputy Communications Director Ryan Tronovitch stated that McCrory’s executive order was similar to both federal language and past executive orders from previous North Carolina governors:

“This Executive Order mirrors federal language as well as orders issued under Governors Hunt, Martin, Easley and Perdue over the course of more than 30 years. Insisting on fairness and nondiscrimination for employees and applicants to North Carolina’s state government is a tradition that Governor McCrory is proud to continue.”

But, federal equal employment policies do, in fact, cover sexual orientation, instituted by executive order of President Barack Obama, as well as gender identity, as interpreted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And when this fact — and you know how republicans handle facts … they act like they don’t exist — was pointed out to Tronovitch, he replied, “Actually…you are wrong” and then directed the writer from qnotes — the source for this post — to an outdated 2009 version of federal employment policies.

And when it was pointed out, again, that he was wrong, Tronovitch finally acknowledged his earlier, incorrect statement, but then fell back on that old, still untrue, standby argument that McCrory’s new executive “mirrors” federal regulations.

Like I said, they don’t need no stinking facts.

Asshats never do.