Protecting Feelings v. Safety Concerns: There are Two Sides to the HB2 Debate

With the announcement of the new North Carolina law, known as the Public Facilities and Privacy Act or HB2, the media were dominated by stories and opinions of people opposing the new law, described as being anti-transgender. Celebrities, businesses and other state officials from across the country loudly voiced their opposition, with some of the loudest being Bruce Springsteen, Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas, and PayPal. It had seemed that the general public had already decided what they thought about the matter, and anyone else who had an opposing opinion about the law because of concerns over women’s safety and privacy were bigots.

But maybe the general public has not been given both sides of the story. Those against the law were given a voice in the mainstream media, but those supporting it were either given no voice or painted as transphobes.

In the latest video, Project Veritas explores the other side of the story that the mainstream media does not want you to consider Whether you support the law or not, it’s important to consider both sides of the controversy and the possible threats to women’s safety and privacy if the law was repealed.

This video is not about whether those who identify as transgender should be allowed to use the bathroom of their choosing. This is about showing what lengths university officials will go to protect the feelings of some, even if that means putting students’ privacy at risk. It’s about considering the slippery slope of acceptance our society might find themselves going down. This is about portraying the other side of a controversy that the media doesn’t want you to think about.

We have already seen what happens to those who try to stand up in support of the law. Curt Schilling was fired from ESPN recently because he dared to say what some are scared to. Whether or not you agree with Schilling’s controversial post, at least he tried to inject a different opinion into the media where only one is usually allowed.

James O’Keefe and his team of journalists went undercover at North Carolina universities, posing as students who were concerned about using the bathroom of their choice. When the true intentions of their aliases were revealed each university official had a different response, but perhaps the most troubling responses were found at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Asheville.

“There has been some Snapchats but they self destruct,” O’Keefe, posing as a sexual predator, said to Moffitt about what his alias does in the women’s bathroom.

“They don’t really self destruct,” Moffitt replied.

“I hope they self destruct…” O’Keefe said.

“Like you’re taking Snapchats of women?” Moffitt later asks.

“Okay, so let’s do this. Don’t tell me anything more. Because what you’re doing is you’re alerting me to what we call sexual exploitation.” Moffitt tells O’Keefe.

Another journalist visited Deborah Miles, director at the Center for Diversity Education at UNC Asheville, posing as a student who goes into the men’s bathroom because it’s a “turn on.” When the journalist’s alias admits to taking Snapchats in the bathroom, Miles says that those actions are bad, but does not discourage the student in anyway. In fact, she laughs as the journalist is telling her about her supposed guilty pleasures in the men’s restroom.

O’Keefe and Project Veritas journalists are not sexual predators and do not take pictures in opposite gender bathrooms, but these people are out there. When confronted with this threat these university officials chose to protect their opinions and feelings on the matter instead of protecting the students.

It would be nice to live in a world where women don’t need to worry about sexual predators in the bathroom, but that is not the case. The public deserves to have all of the information so there can be a well rounded discussion, instead of being afraid to discuss the dangers because it might hurt people’s feelings. That does not mean that repealing the law in North Carolina to allow transgenders to use whichever bathroom they prefer is a bad idea. It might be a good idea, but we shouldn’t allow the media to only feed the public one side of the story.