I strongly disagree with the Editorial Board’s suggestion that students “welcome” the 2019 Institute of Politics Visiting Fellows, one of whom is former North Carolina governor Pat McCrory, to speak weekly on campus this semester. McCrory’s historic support for House Bill 2, legislation that disallowed North Carolina municipalities from passing LGBT anti-discrimination ordinances and that required gender-nonconforming and transgender North Carolinians to use only those bathrooms that align with their biological sex as assigned at birth, disqualifies him for the post. House Bill 2 has been described by Equality North Carolina, a respected nonprofit working to secure equal rights for LGBT North Carolinians, as “the worst anti-LGBT bill in the entire nation,” and key provisions of the bill remain on the books. I doubt that the Editorial Board would encourage Black students to welcome an avowed racist to speak on campus, or Jewish students an avowed anti-Semite. Yet, it expects students who identify as transgender or gender-nonconforming to blithely engage with a person who has leveraged his position of power to deny the rights of LGBT North Carolinians. In inviting McCrory to serve as a prestigious Fellow on campus, the Institute of Politics has demonstrated that its role is not to honor true public service, but to celebrate power removed from the demands of moral clarity. The Board should condemn the IoP’s decision and rescind its remarks.
Avra Janz
UNC 2021
Economics and public policy major
