This North Carolina bar brutally lampoons the state's discriminatory 'bathroom bill'

Last week, the North Carolina state legislature passed a law banning transgender people from using their preferred bathrooms in some instances; governor Pat McCrory signed the bill late Wednesday night.

Predictably, there’s been widespread backlash from advocates of equality, ranging from Dow Chemical to the NBA to the ACLU, who filed a lawsuit today challenging the legislation.

There’s also smaller establishments, like The Cave, a dive bar in Chapel Hill, protesting in their own way.

Sarah Shook, a bartender at The Cave, said she put the sign up following the passage of HB2. “Our owner is very forward thinking—I didn’t even have to get his okay to put it up,” she told me. “No one should come in here and wonder if they’ll be discriminated against.”

Shook said she was prompted to put the sign up because she wanted to make clear the bar is a safe space for people of all communities. She said she hopes the sign indicates to LGBT patrons that there are businesses that support them.

“The bill will be repealed—it’s just too over the top,” she said. “But for now, what matters to me is that people feel comfortable, respected, and safe.”