conflate several different issues as if they're all one IMO. Bathroom use, Shower/locker room use, protection from being fired and discrimination based on gender identity, etc. are all different issues IMO.

The school system here in VA that is likely headed for the Supreme Court was strictly about bathroom usage. One of the several reasons I stood up and argued against how they ruled and in favor of using gender identity was for the reason that the Dept. of Ed and Dept of Justice via the Office of Civil Liberties had been very clear how they would and have ruled on the bathroom usage issue. (I also think it's the common sense and humane approach, as well as how I would want it handled if it were my kids and how it would affect my non-transgender kids)

The Carolina law was ramping it up from the other side in reaction to the Charlotte local law. They took it too far IMO because they included the shower/locker room issue as a reason to use the genitalia approach for bathrooms (although the Charlotte law may have put that in play, I'm not sure), and more insidiously IMO negated the Charlotte law protecting gays and transgenders from being fired/discriminated against. Sorry, not wanting someone with male genitalia showering with your daughter should have no bearing on bathroom usage or ability to fire/discriminate. They should've handled the topics separately IMO, and I've heard Gov. McCrory even say they should revisit the employment protection aspect separately since HB2 passed.

Friday the Dept. of Justice ramped it up to include locker rooms/showers and dorm living. Which again, should be treated separately from bathroom usage IMO. And did so by fiat from a DC bureaucracy, not via legislature or a court ruling. Before that, their rulings had pertained almost exclusively, if not totally, with bathroom usage only.

These three situations are all recent occurrences. Yes, it's an election year, but that didn't affect the timing. And the fact that there are localities or even states that have previously had anti-LGBT discrimination laws in place, even if they include shower/locker room use, has no precedence on other localities or states. The Dept of Ed and DOJ had been ruling on the bathroom issue alone for years as well. So even if it's being additionally ramped up now for election year purposes, hoos actually doing that ramping up? Is it the ACLU that is taking my local school board through the court system because they interpreted the law differently than had the Depts. of Ed. and Justice but not yet ruled upon by the Comm of VA or Fed Courts/legislature? The NC Gen. Assembly that overreacted to the Charlotte law by using one fear to justify wrong decisions in other areas, or the Charlotte law if it forced their hand by including bathrooms/showers? The Fed Bureaucracy on Friday that issued their defacto edict to be forced upon all states and localities without legislative or judicial authority to support them, and went far beyond the bathroom issue to include showers/locker rooms and prevent safeguards that a litmus test on what constitutes "transgender" could provide?

I don't think you can point the finger just at the religious "hee-haws" in the South as you seem to be implying. Both sides have ramped it up to see the mess before us now IMO. And if anything, those "hee-haws" represent the pushback that should've been expected when taken beyond the bathroom only issue.