Elton John, one of pop world’s most iconic singers and musicians – and who now includes a “Sir” before his name, due to the knighthood he received from the British queen in 1998 – tore into North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory in a published op-ed post about the state’s transgender law, calling it both “discriminatory” and “traumatic” to those in the LGBT community.
“McCrory has doubled down on his support for H.B. 2, the discriminatory bill requiring public school students to use restrooms for the gender they were assigned at birth,” John wrote, referencing the state’s suit against the Department of Justice to fight the feds’ demand to North Carolina to stop engaging in a “pattern or practice of employment discrimination on the basis of sex,” the Hill reported.
John then decried the “millions in taxpayer dollars” McCrory would need to win the suit, and said the governor’s “ignorance” at legislating on the matter without ever meeting with a transgender in person was a prime example of what’s wrong in politics.
“This brand of ignorance deliberately shuts out the perspective of an already marginalized community,” John wrote, the Hill reported. “It’s dangerous and it goes beyond bathrooms. As the father of two children, I would hope their world is free of discriminatory, hateful legislation like North Carolina’s. Forcing transgender people to use the bathroom of a gender with which they don’t identify isn’t just inconvenient or impractical. For many, especially young students still grappling with their transition, it can be traumatic and at worst, unsafe.”