Fox News host Megyn Kelly on Thursday had just one request for North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory: Show me the evidence your anti-LGBTQ law was really necessary.
He came up short. Throughout the four-minute interview, McCrory recited platitudes about how the law supposedly protects North Carolinians' privacy and safety.
North Carolina's law does two things: It bans local nondiscrimination laws that include sexual orientation and gender identity, and forces transgender people to use the bathrooms in schools and government buildings that don't align with their gender identity.
"You know there is a misconception that transgendered [sic] are somehow molesters. And they're not. That's not true," Kelly said. "Typically, male molesters are heterosexual. And if they want to sneak into a bathroom, they'll do it. But 90 percent of the cases, molestation happens with someone you know. So what is the fear about the transgender situation in the bathrooms?"
McCrory responded: "Mine is not a fear. I'm not doing it, and I don't like the rhetoric that's often used on the right saying what the fear is. It's a basic expectation of privacy that I hear from moms and dads and families that when their daughter or son goes into a facility, a restroom, they expect people of that gender, of that biological sex or gender, to be the only other ones in that. That's the expectation that we've had for many, many years."
McCrory might now say otherwise, but it's simply not true that he has not played into concerns over public safety and molesters in bathrooms in the past. When Charlotte passed the local nondiscrimination law that triggered a state response, McCrory said, "This shift in policy could also create major public safety issues by putting citizens in possible danger from deviant actions by individuals taking improper advantage of a bad policy." Indeed, the law McCrory helped push through the legislature is called the "Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act."
Unable to come up with a proper response, McCrory just flat-out denied what he's said before.
One reason McCrory didn't cite evidence for his law: There is none
There's a reason even a network and anchor known as friendly to conservative causes were so hard on McCrory: There's simply no evidence to support his claims.
Proponents of these laws argue that if trans people are allowed to use the bathroom of their choice, men will disguise themselves as women to use women's bathrooms and sexually assault women.
But investigations have found that this has never reportedly happened as a result of trans-friendly policies in the US. In two investigations, Media Matters confirmed with experts and officials in 12 states and 17 school districts with protections for LGBTQ people that they had no increases in sex crimes after they enacted LGBTQ protections, which generally let trans people use the bathroom they want.
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But North Carolina Republicans have continued defending the law by citing the idea that it is necessary for public safety. Yet as McCrory's interview with Kelly shows, even he can't produce any evidence for it.
