Jane Allen Wilson: Sex offenders don’t care about law

I have known many sexual assault survivors. I am infuriated that the McCrory administration is using sexual assault to promote bigotry.

One in four women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Men are also sexually assaulted. People who are transgender and people with disabilities are often assaulted at even higher rates!

While perhaps silent, we know Gov. Pat McCrory is using people’s trauma to promote his homophobic politics!

Most people who commit sexual assault do so against someone they know. When strangers rape, they obviously care little about committing a serious crime; why would they be dissuaded by bathroom restrictions?

It displays McCrory’s absolute ignorance of this important issue! He promotes a mythology, statistically inaccurate, in blatant disregard for our long-term investment of state funds to overcome this myth and for many North Carolinians working hard to help.

When McCrory signs bigoted laws, he needs to call them what they are. He must neither feign concern for us, nor manipulate our fears, nor misuse other people’s tragedy as an excuse to act in hate. If he truly cares about sexual assault, then he will act in support of true prevention and response – for everyone.

This story was originally published April 9, 2016 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Jane Allen Wilson: Sex offenders don’t care about law."