For six weeks, North Carolina has been the target of withering attacks from politicians, businesses, sports organizations and LGBT activists. The state’s major alleged crime is, to quote Bruce Springsteen, the passage of a law that “dictates which bathrooms transgender people are permitted to use.”

The law has led to economic boycotts by Bruce Springsteen, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and executives at PayPal among others, as well as what one conservative attorney has called “bullying” from the U.S. Department of Justice. Doubling the social crime in the eyes of many is that the law overturned a so-called “non-discrimination” ordinance in Charlotte, North Carolina, which mandated that all businesses and public buildings permit people who claim to feel they are of the opposite sex to use whatever restroom, locker room and other related facilities they choose.

But for all of the outcry, the simple fact is that the North Carolina law is both astonishingly modest and largely respectful of individual choice — and the Charlotte ordinance it overturned was neither.

What Did the Charlotte Ordinance Do?

In two different“fact-checks,” PolitiFact stressed that the Charlotte ordinance was modest in its goals, based upon a “he said, she said” between state officials and Charlotte officials. However, both an attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and a plain reading of the Charlotte ordinance make its radical totalitarianism clear. Below is the relevant portion of the Charlotte ordinance. Note that the crossed out material is what changed from a pre-existing ordinance, and the underlined material was the controversially added portion.

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Read the full article at The Stream.

Dustin Siggins is Associate Editor for The Stream and an occasional contributor to ThePulse2016.com.