In a recent interview on the Christian news site WORLD’s Listening In podcast, former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory alleged that his reputation as an anti-trans bigot has made some companies reluctant to hire him for the consulting services he is currently offering. Last year, McCrory found himself at the center of a debate on transgender rights when his state speedily passed HB2, a law which, among other things, requires transgender people to use bathrooms that correspond to the gender listed on their birth certificates in government buildings, and killed local anti-discrimination ordinances. McCrory repeatedly defended the law in interviews, claiming it was about common sense and tradition and keeping predators away from kids (predators who are apparently too polite to enter a bathroom that isn’t designated for them) while mostly circumventing the anti-trans rhetoric this law was founded on.
On Listening In, McCrory said: “People are reluctant to hire me, because, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s a bigot,’ which is the last thing I am.” The first thing he is, though, is a victim.
To The News & Observer, McCrory apparently clarified:
I’ve currently accepted several opportunities in business to do work that I’d done prior to becoming governor in consulting and advisory board positions, and I’ve also been exploring other opportunities in academia, nonprofits and government. And I’ll hopefully be making some of those decisions in the near future.
Whatever the case, McCrory made his bathroom and now he has to lie in it. If he gets piss in his hair in the process, so be it. He took a stand on an issue that he didn’t seem to be bothered with understanding the other side of (while repeatedly claiming, without producing any evidence, that he empathizes with trans people and “someone going through a gender-identity crisis”) and now people don’t want to be associated with him—or so he claims.
While those on the left may hear this news and think, “And it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving asshole,” those on the right (the predominant audience of a Christian podcast like this one) are meant to hear this message and think, “PC culture is out of control!” I’m just saying: Let’s keep McCrory’s whining in perspective and understand the agenda at hand.
And oh, what whining occurred. Said McCrory to Listening In host Warren Smith:
[It’s] almost Orwellian that if you disagree with the politically correct thought police on this new definition of gender you’re a bigot, you’re the worst of evil. It’s almost as though I broke a law…It’s a bad part of our nation going on right now. You see the same techniques going on against Trump right now.
He suggested a rather elaborate left-wing scheme to oust him from office (remember: McCrory famously refused to concede losing the gubernatorial election last November for nearly a month):
This is part of their agenda. When I got elected, the far left all met and they said they’re gonna do three things: They’re gonna eviscerate Pat McCrory—this is within the first two weeks—we’re gonna try to get as much free publicity as possible through protests. Whatever Pat McCrory does, we’re gonna protest. And third, whatever he does we’re gonna call it extremist.
He recounted being met with protestors when in Washington D.C. for the Trump inauguration:
What’s ironic is our culture, or the great thing of our nation is, we ought to be able to have political disagreement within the private sector, corporations…you know, cubicle to cubicle. And I’m afraid, you’re seeing this with the Trump presidency, people are reluctant to say they’re for Trump. People are reluctant to say, ‘You know what? I wanna stick with the original definition of how we define boys and girls and men and women. I think men oughta use men’s locker rooms and showers.’ People are reluctant to say it for fear of backlash, for fear of being called a bigot, and that’s the worst of our country going on right now. On both sides now by the way. But the left wing is more intolerant than the right wing. And these protests. I mean, I got attacked on the streets of Washington DC during the inauguration where someone went, ‘There’s Pat McCrory. Let’s get him.’ And I’m sitting there without security going, ‘Is this really happening?’ And it’s over this issue and I was chased several blocks down an alley and I was in fear of my safety.
More victim yarn. This incident was actually captured on video, and while it is intense, there is never even the suggestion of a physical threat. McCrory and his McCronies are followed for less than a block and at one point McCrory smiles at the protestors, who chant, “Shame on you” at him repeatedly.
Leave it to a cis straight white guy to think of intolerance to his intolerance as the real injustice. None of those on the left wing, as far as I can tell, are looking to designate which bathroom McCrory enters or threaten any thread of his identity with discrimination. They just think he’s an asshole.
Here’s a thought for people who don’t like when others don’t like their discriminatory bullshit: If something that you do or think puts you at risk of being labeled a bigot, you have two options. You can stop and not be called a bigot, or you can continue and be called a bigot. You just don’t get to have it both ways and then whine about how unfair and scary the world is. If you expect that people are just going to shut up and take your discrimination, you’re an idiot.
Also notable in Listening In is McCrory’s rationale for his stance on what he terms “the gender issue”:
It’s the doctor that determines the gender of a baby. You know, you ask the doctor is it a boy or a girl? You don’t ask the baby.
That’s because newborn babies can’t talk, Pat. But one day they might grow up to be angry enough to shout back at your “common sense.” And then you’re the one who sounds like a baby.