Minorities are the largest victims of discrimination, and the gay community is no exception. Despite the large presence of the gay community in the public eye, many still have strong feelings of hatred towards them. Those in the gay community are humans just like everybody else, even though we often find ourselves lacking basic “human” rights that those in the straight community were born with.

Even after the fight to legalize same-sex marriage, a basic human right enjoyed by the straight community, the LGBT community now has to fight for the right to use the bathroom they identify with.

On Feb. 22, lawmakers in Charlotte, N.C., passed an ordinance expanding North Carolina’s anti-discrimination laws that, among other things, would allow transgender people to use the bathrooms of the gender they identify as. In response, N.C.’s general assembly met at a special session a month later to propose and passed House Bill 2 (HB2), signed into place by Gov. Pat McCrory(R).

HB2 would require people in the state of N.C. to use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender that is printed on their birth certificates. How will they enforce this? Will North Carolinians be bombarded with “bathroom security” and “crotch checks” to ensure that this law is followed? N.C. essentially created a law that cannot be actively enforced or policed for the effect of discrimination. It is as simple as that.

The most publicized argument against equality for trans people is the statement that “I don’t want my wife and daughter sharing a bathroom with a man.”

To those people I beg them to consider this: would you rather have a trans man wearing a suit, smelling of cologne, and growing a beard in the bathroom with your wife and children because they were born with the same “parts” as your loved ones? Alternatively, would you rather glance at them once in the men’s room and not even think twice because, unlike popular belief, it is not that easy to distinguish a naturally born male from one who had to transition?

Many public figures have come to support the gay community and the repeal of the “bathroom bill.” Bruce Springsteen refuses to sing in N.C., Deutsche Bank will not expand in N.C., N.C.’s NAACP promises “sit-ins” if the law isn’t repealed, comedian Joel McHale donated all the funds from a performance in Durham, N.C. to the local LGBT center, and even PayPal scrapped a planned 400-job expansion in N.C. to protest the bill.

Even Washington D.C., the nation’s capital, recently passed a law that requires every public establishment to have a unisex bathroom for patrons and workers to use. This law greatly expanded LGBT protection. N.C. is getting plenty of hate from across the nation for the HB2, so why is it so hard to scrap it and adopt a law similar to that of D.C.’s? Perhaps integrated bathrooms are just too radical of an idea for the South, which has always been last to treat human beings equally.