Commentary

from Gambit Summer Dining Guide 2022

Puzzles

Everyonesuffersforthe legislature’s reckless disregard of rights

ECONOMICPROTESTSHAVE LONGBEENFORCESFOR

CHANGEINAMERICA, from the Boston Tea Party to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and beyond. Here in New Orleans, then-civil rights leader (and future mayor) Dutch Morial quietly convinced local business leaders in the 1960s to integrate major public accommodations by convincing them of a simple economic fact: Segregation and discrimination were bad for business. Sadly, too many members of the Louisiana Legislature need to learn that lesson today.

In the wake of a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion that portends the near-certain end of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Republican state lawmakers raced to file measures making Louisiana’s already draconian anti-abortion laws even more retrograde. One particularly odious proposal, by Rep. Danny McCormick, R-Oil City, would have subjected women who obtain abortions to murder charges. A House committee approved McCormick’s bill by a vote of 7-2, with all the “yes” votes cast by Republican men. McCormick ultimately shelved his bill, but the damage was done.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), which typically brings thousands of wealthy physicians to town, canceled its scheduled 2023 meeting in New Orleans. The cancellation was a body blow to the local hospitality industry, which still struggles to regain its footing more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, ACOG said of its decision, “Holding the nation’s largest gathering of obstetrician–gynecologists in a location where the provision of evidence-based care is banned or subject to criminal or other penalties is directly at odds with our mission.”

ACOG’s decision was not a oneoff. In recent years, major sporting events and big-dollar movie productions have canceled in other states because of laws relating to abortion, transgender rights and other “culture war” issues. In 2017, New Orleans took the NBA All-Star Game away from Charlotte after North Carolina’s legislature refused to repeal an anti-trans law. Now the shoe is on the other foot.

Louisiana’s Republican majority is pushing — by overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate — a patently discriminatory and wholly unnecessary anti-trans bill. That measure, by Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell of Franklinton, professes to make high school and college athletics “fair” by barring trans students from participating. Lawmakers passed a similar bill last year, but Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed it. GOP legislative leaders failed to muster enough votes to override his decision. This year, they may succeed.

Critics of Mizell’s bill rightly call it “a solution in search of a problem” because the Louisiana High School Athletic Association already has a restrictive policy in place. In fact, no supporter of Mizell’s bill could name a single trans athlete competing at any level in Louisiana — proof that their sole aim is to single out an already marginalized group of young people for further mistreatment.

Equally sad, and tragically ironic, New Orleans will bear the brunt of the economic hardships that follow lawmakers’ mean-spirited, reckless decisions. Ultimately, everyone in Louisiana will suffer — until lawmakers come to their senses.

PHOTO BY SCOTT THRELKELD / THE TIME S-PICAYUNE Protestersgatheredfor anabortionrightsrally at DuncanPlaza on May14.