Danny DeVito: North Carolina’s Bathroom Privacy Law Treats Transgender People ‘Like Second-Class Citizens’

Danny DeVito called North Carolina’s Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act a “ridiculous” law from a state full of people who do not “understand what humanity is.”

“Oh my god, it’s ridiculous. North Carolina is basically a pariah now,” the 71-year-old told The Daily Beast. These people don’t understand what humanity is. They don’t have an evolutionary bone in their body.”

DeVito is the latest liberal luminary to chime in on North Carolina’s so-called “bathroom bill.”

“I think the people of North Carolina need to rise up against all this legislation, because it’s ludicrous to be discriminating against folks,” he said.

North Carolina’s Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act removes discrimination protection from lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in public facilities. The law has caused some controversy because it forbids transgender men and boys from using women’s public bathrooms and locker rooms if they self-identify as female. The law also bars local governments from granting transgender people the right to use whatever public facilities they choose.

“Bruce Springsteen canceled a concert down there, and it’s kind of divesting,” DeVito said, referencing the musician’s decision to drop his April 10 concert in Greensboro, North Carolina. Springsteen said the cancellation was in support of the “fight against prejudice and bigotry.”

DeVito’s latest on-screen feature is a short film, Curmudgeons, which sees DeVito professing his love for an angry old man (David Margulies) in a retirement home.

Devito added:

It’s the way it works in the world, it seems to be, because people are so invested in money—and so invested in capitalism—the only way to get people to wake up is to divest and say, “Look, we’re not going to do business with you if you’re going to treat people like second-class citizens and not give them their basic human rights.”

Over the past couple months, Danny DeVito has been an enthusiastic celebrity surrogate for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @jeromeehudson.