Tom Clemmer: ‘Traditional’ regression

Regarding Gov. Pat McCrory’s statement about House Bill 2 and the Virginia court decision in the April 20 news article “4th Circuit rules for teen in Virginia bathroom case”: So McCrory wants North Carolina to do things the “traditional way.”

In addition to “traditional” discrimination against our LBGT residents, would he perhaps like to bring back “traditional” discrimination against people of color? “Traditional” discrimination against women? “Traditional” discrimination against people of different faiths or ethnicities?

North Carolina has already seen bipartisan regression to “traditional” (i.e, pre-Dorothea Dix) mental health care. Large numbers of our mentally ill neighbors are already with inadequate or no services or, worse, in jail for lack of psychiatric hospital beds.

Maybe our license plates should say “North Carolina, First In Tradition.” Lead on, governor! Keep us moving boldly and proudly into the past!

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Tom Clemmer: ‘Traditional’ regression."