Opinion: What Does the North Carolina Bathroom Bill Mean for Libertarians?

What Does North Carolina's Bathroom Bill Mean for Libertarians?

The so-called "Bathroom Bill" in North Carolina is a puzzling concept to grab onto for some. Libertarians, especially, tend to have some form of disagreement in terms of policy vs philosophy. In other words, does the philosophy of total liberty grant certain institutions the ability to make restrictive actions or is that restriction a violation of the philosophy of total personal liberty? We have to debate whether or not bills like the Bathroom Bill violate personal freedoms, institutional freedoms, or both. Furthermore, is there one we should value more than the other? So we will define institutional liberties, personal liberties, and the bathroom bill in brief to give an idea of what we're comparing.

Institutional Liberties

There is a protection for businesses to create the environment they desire without reservation, in Libertarian thought. The result of this is countered with the freedom of choosing another business to go to. This is a core thought to the limitation of government regulation. With government regulation, businesses may be forced to, or not to, adopt a policy that infringes on their practice. This isn't something we support in any way. With complete institutional liberty, there is a risk that a business may create an environment in which you don't agree with. These principles somewhat define a very basic understanding of what Institutional Liberty refers to.

Personal Liberties

Personal liberties are at the core of the Libertarian philosophy. As long as one is not harming another, there is no place for personal freedom or privacy to be sacrificed for any reason. Keeping one's ability to live the peaceful life they please at a limit with the threat of legal action is a direct violation of basic human rights. Libertarians fight hard to keep government regulation out of your day to day life. While this is a complex issue at times, complete personal liberty is part of what creates progress and innovation within societies.

The Bathroom Bill

North Carolina's Bathroom Bill, or HB2 as we will refer to it, declines local governments within North Carolina's borders the right to expand on the state's anti-discrimination laws. In other words, cities, counties, etc... can't decide to legally accommodate transgender men and women in public facilities, such as bathrooms. The bill has been declared the "bathroom bill", but it really engulfs a large scale of abilities that would previously be in the hands of local governments. We must begin to acknowledge that this bill goes beyond bathrooms.

The Libertarian Analysis

First and foremost, the bill strips away a smaller government's ability to grant further civil liberties to its people. This alone goes against a very basic Libertarian thought. The bill is designed to cut back the amount of personal freedom the government is allowed to grant. In terms of the cornerstone of the Libertarian Party, which is personal liberty, the bill would not be passed under a Libertarian government.

Now we have to analyze whether or not the bill goes against institutional liberty. The answer to this is that yes, the bill also infringes on institutional liberty. If the bill is passed, institutions won't be able to accommodate the LGBT community. If the bill isn't passed, institutions of all types have the ability to, or not to, accommodate patrons in ways that are protected by anti-discrimination laws. Not only does the bill not allow the expansion of liberties, it doesn't allow a decrease in liberty either. In other words, the bill just keeps the state stuck in place with no progress and no improvement. This country has no time or place for stalling. 

Final thought: Get rid of HB2 and let people live their lives freely.