Joe Moran: Ignorance disguised as morality

With the passage of HB2, North Carolina’s General Assembly members are presenting themselves as the last bastion of Christian morality. The claim is bogus.

There may be a few legislators who, because of lack of experience, feel genuinely threatened by the mere existence of transgender people, but there is no excuse for them to ignore the facts that there is little or no evidence to support their claim that transgender people represent a threat to women and children.

The real threats to North Carolina families are the legislators’ shutting the door on Medicaid expansion, limiting unemployment benefits and their xenophobic doubling down on desperate immigrant families.

It is noteworthy that in Christian Scriptures, Jesus’ list of things for which humankind ultimately will be judged (Matthew 25), contains nothing related to “things sexual.” Instead, it is sins against the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned and the strangers in our midst.

What we are witnessing is nothing short of ignorance and prurience masked as morality, if not cynical electoral opportunism.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Joe Moran: Ignorance disguised as morality."