Part of the reason that I come to the Ethical Humanist Society is to be with like –minded people.

This is a very human need for communion with others and community.

But there is a dark side to this human need.

The need for unity and commonality can resist and oppose diversity and inclusiveness.

Ethical Humanism recognizes this potential pitfall. Affirming that everyone has worth serves to counter this human tendency. If everyone has worth and value, I am more likely to recognize someone else’s interests and extend to them those freedoms that I want for myself.

Along with many of you, this past Wednesday I was saddened and disappointed – but not surprised – when Governor Pat McCory, Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, and Speaker Tim Moore brought the North Carolina Legislature in for an “Emergency Bathroom Break”. This special session was called to pass legislation overturning a Charlotte City Council anti-discrimination ordinance protecting the rights of gay, lesbian, and transgender people.

In a whirlwind session on Wednesday, the North Carolina tea party-controlled Legislature passed a wide-ranging law that that explicitly excludes gay, lesbian, and transgender people from protection from discrimination in North Carolina.

The trigger for this action centered on transgender bathroom use. Really? Seriously?

The Charlotte ordinance permits transgender people to use public bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, rather than the gender assigned at birth. It acknowledged who they were.

The State Legislature’s reasons for opposing the Charlotte ordinance were a litany of ignorance and fear.

Sponsors of the legislation put forth the idea that it would protect women and children from advances by transgender biological males in bathrooms. There is no evidence that this has ever happened.

Rather than protecting women and children from a non-existent threat by transgender women who may have penises, this legislation exposes transgender people to continued discrimination and violence. It also opens the door to discrimination against LGBTQ people in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

This legislation reveals our state legislature’s hypocrisy of by showing that the conservative ideas of limited government and local government control do not apply when conservatives take issue with local ordinances.

This discriminatory legislation conforms to the conservative religious beliefs of the tea party politicians. Their idea of religious freedom is to enact laws imposing their religious views on others.

Conservatives in our legislature yearn for a fictitious idyllic white-bread past where white men were in charge and minorities new their place.

I am not alone in taking umbrage to the discriminatory actions of the state legislature. Prominent state businesses and national organizations have spoken out against the actions of the state. Many will now choose to avoid doing commerce in North Carolina.

Back in May 2012, North Carolina voters passed Amendment 1, prohibiting same sex marriage. The nation, and the world, saw North Carolina as backward-thinking and prejudice.

Once again we are the poster child for ignorance and hate. A special session of the North Carolina legislature was convened, not to extend health care to over 600,000 North Carolinians without coverage, not to restore voting rights, they met to save our bathrooms from transgender women and make discrimination against LGBTQ people legal again.

Here we are again on the wrong side of history, on the wrong side of human rights, on the wrong side of recognizing the worth and dignity of everyone.

So go online and sign a petition. Do as Durham State Senator Mike Woodard did and donate – he donated his pay for the special session to a North Carolina gay rights organization.

But most of all speak out and vote – for the worth and dignity of all of us.