Wisconsin should not follow North Carolina’s lead

Wisconsin is not North Carolina. But some state lawmakers wish it were. As the state of North Carolina prepares to do battle with the federal government over which bathrooms people can use, Wisconsin lawmakers seem intent on going down a similar path. Representative Jesse Kremer, who introduced a bill last session that would force members of the LGBT community to use the bathroom of their gender at birth, is preparing to reintroduce similar legislation. But this time, rather than apply only to school bathrooms and locker rooms, Kremer wants to go even further this time. He wants to ban transgendered people from using any public bathroom in the state that correspond with their gender identity. That is despite the fact that North Carolina is risking turning itself into an island with its legislation. The federal government could chose to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding that would go to the state’s university system, and a legal fight would no doubt be a long and expensive one. Entertainers have boycotted the state of North Carolina over its new law, and the NBA may move next year’s All Star game from Charlotte as a result of the state’s decision to try to legalize discrimination. This is not the road Wisconsin should go down. Wisconsin lawmakers should reject Kremer’s latest bill, and let people go to the bathroom wherever they feel most comfortable.