Opening Doors

The current circumstances in North Carolina—a tableau of states’-rights populism, an embattled minority seeking equality, a conflict over who is allowed to use public facilities, and a Southern governor committed to resisting federal executive authority—warrant a reversal of a familiar adage: everything new is old again. In March, Governor Pat McCrory signed a bill, known as HB2, that requires people in North Carolina to use the public rest room that corresponds to the sex indicated on their birth certificate. The response was swift. PayPal cancelled plans to build an operations center in Charlotte. Twenty conventions pulled out of the state. Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam, among others, cancelled concerts. The governors of Connecticut, Vermont, and New York issued restrictions on state employees travelling to North Carolina on official business.