Professor Stein on North Carolina's Brutal Tradition of Sexual and Gender Discrimination

HISTORY NEWS NETWORK -- Marc Stein, the Robert and Phyllis Pasker Professor of History at San Francisco State University, outlines the “long and harrowing history of opposition to sexual and gender freedom” in North Carolina, dating to the 18th century. The state recently passed a controversial law that requires public schools and agencies in the state to designate every multiple occupancy bathroom or changing room as appropriate for use by either males or females, with an individual’s “biological sex” to be determined by the information listed on their birth certificate. “Once again the state is receiving extensive negative media attention for violating basic principles of equality and justice,” Stein writes. “And once again brave and courageous individuals, assisted by progressive legal and political advocates, are going to court to defend their rights and ours.”