GA’s philosophy ‘unfortunate’

Although the new state law called HB 2 affects all the Wake Forest area residents who are gay, lesbian, queer or transgender, it does not directly affect the Town of Wake Forest. However, Mayor Vivian Jones, a Republican who is in her fourth term, looked at other actions of the Republican-controlled General Assembly, and called it all “unfortunate.”

“I believe it is unfortunate that the legislature looks at all of the towns in the state and doesn’t see a difference. Rural vs. urban, large vs. small, and in many other ways we are different and our constituencies are different. There has to be some consistency, of course, but we are right here in the community with our residents, we are accessible to them, and we answer to them at election time. We are trying our hardest to make our communities the best they can be. Sometimes I feel that the legislature is making it harder and harder for us to respond to our residents. It is always better if we work together at all levels of government.”

HB 2 was passed last week while the General Assembly met for a day and was signed later that same day by Governor Pat McCrory. It requires that people must use the multiple-occupancy bathrooms for the same sex as stated on their birth certificate, their “biological sex” and applies to all school systems and the state university system; preempts local governments from raising the local hourly wage above the state current level and from providing more employee rights than listed in the bill, which are race, religion, color, national origin, age, biological sex and handicap but does not include gay, lesbian and transgender people; and extends the same protections and lack of protections to charges of discrimination brought before the Human Relations Commission.

Wake Forest was affected by a 2011 bill which overturned local governments’ bans on guns in public parks and the town was potentially affected by a 2011 ban on cities developing their own broadband internet networks that would be cheaper than the service by private companies. A 2012 law prohibits cities from annexing nearby land unless a referendum vote by the affected residents approves. Wake Forest has not annexed property since the 1980s except by request from the owners, but there may be situations where a forced annexation would be desirable.

Wake County has been affected by changes in two local elections, the Wake County Board of Commissioners and the Wake County Public School System, where new voting districts were established by the General Assembly with the overt intention to make it easier to elect Republicans to those boards.