North Carolina’s Senate and House passed bills that barred medical professionals from providing hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and surgical transgender procedures to children.
The bills also look to prevent transgender athletes from competing in sports that go against their biological sex.
The GOP controls both Senate and House, allowing them to pass the bill swiftly.
In a futile effort, Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the bills before immediately being overridden.
The Associated Press has more on the story:
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Transgender youth in North Carolina lost access Wednesday to gender-affirming treatments after the Republican-led General Assembly overrode the Democratic governor’s vetoes of that legislation and other bills touching on gender in sports and LGBTQ+ instruction in the classroom.
GOP supermajorities in the House and Senate enacted — over Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto — a bill barring medical professionals from providing hormone therapy, puberty-blocking drugs and surgical gender-transition procedures to anyone under 18, with limited medical exceptions.
The policy takes effect immediately, but minors who had begun treatment before Aug. 1 may continue receiving that care if their doctors deem it medically necessary and their parents consent.
ADVERTISEMENTNorth Carolina becomes the 22nd state to enact legislation restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for trans minors. But most of those laws face legal challenges, and local LGBTQ+ right advocates vowed to challenge the ban in court. The Senate voted 27-18 to complete the veto override after the House voted 73-46 earlier.
Republican Sen. Joyce Krawiec, primary sponsor of the bill restricting gender-affirming care, said the state has a responsibility to protect children from receiving potentially irreversible procedures before they are old enough to make their own informed medical decisions.
But Democratic Sen. Lisa Grafstein, North Carolina’s only out LGBTQ+ state senator, said the gender-affirming care bill “may be the most heartbreaking bill in a truly heartbreaking session.”
Some LGBTQ+ rights advocates in the Senate gallery began yelling after Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who was presiding, cut off Grafstein to let another lawmaker speak. Several people were then escorted from the chamber by capitol police.
Earlier, the Senate and House voted minutes apart to override another Cooper veto of a bill limiting LGBTQ+ instruction in the early grades, also making that law. The measure requires public school teachers in most circumstances to alert parents before they call a student by a different name or pronoun. And the law also bans instruction about gender identity and sexuality in K-4 classrooms, which critics have previously likened to a Florida law opponents call “Don’t Say Gay.”
Both chambers also voted Wednesday to override Cooper’s veto of another bill banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams from middle and high school through college. It, too, immediately became law.
A day of divisive deliberations saw anger and emotion boil over at times in the assembly.
This is a step in the right direction.
Children do NOT need to be given hormone-altering drugs or permanent surgeries that damage their bodies.
We’re already seeing similar cases throughout other states.
Florida is one of the more popular ones that enacted legislation.
NICELY DONE NORTH CAROLINA!!!
House voted 73-46 to override Dem Gov Roy Cooper’s VETO on the bill BANNING gender re-assignment surgeries for minors (aka mutilation)
North Carolina will be the 23rd state to ban to this BULLSHIT!!
That’s what happens with a veto-proof… pic.twitter.com/75vElFBFOr
— SaltyGoat (@SaltyGoat17) August 16, 2023
Fantastic news! NC house and senate has now officially overridden the veto of Gov Cooper of HB 574, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.
The bill is now law in North Carolina! It passed with bipartisan support pic.twitter.com/4SLZxmcskW
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) August 16, 2023
Hartford Courant, a North Carolina local news, has more on the situation:
Gender-affirming care is considered safe and medically necessary by the leading professional health associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the Endocrine Society. While trans minors very rarely receive surgical interventions, they are commonly prescribed drugs to delay puberty and sometimes begin taking hormones before they reach adulthood.
The House kicked off the day’s rush of votes with a 74-45 vote to override Cooper’s veto of a bill that would prohibit transgender girls from playing on girls’ middle school, high school and college sports teams. The Senate completed the override soon after.
A former Olympic swimmer, Rep. Marcia Morey, had spoken in House floor debate before the vote about possible repercussions for young athletes.
“This bill affects 10-, 11-, 12-year-olds who are just starting to learn about athletics, about competition, about sportsmanship,” Morey, a Durham County Democrat, said. “To some of these kids, it could be their lifeline to self-confidence.”
ADVERTISEMENTCritics have said limits on transgender girls’ participation in sports were discriminatory and have called it a measure disguised as a safety precaution that would unfairly pick on a small number of students.
But such supporters of the bill as Payton McNabb, a recent high school graduate from Murphy, argued that legislation is needed to protect the safety and well-being of young female athletes and to preserve scholarship opportunities for them.
“The veto of this bill was not only a veto on women’s rights, but a slap in the face to every female in the state,” said McNabb, who says she suffered a concussion and neck injury last year after a transgender athlete hit her in the head with a volleyball during a school match.
No good argument explains why CHILDREN should be given these treatments.
The North Carolina GOP is steering the state in a good direction.
Leftists will whine and cry over these bills.
But time will show how right we are.
🚨 BREAKING: The North Carolina House of Representatives has voted 73-46 to OVERRIDE Democrat Governor Roy Cooper’s veto on a bill that BANS sex change surgery for children.
AMAZING NEWS!!! 👏👏👏https://t.co/pN7wq5KVNJ
— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) August 16, 2023
Great news for women and girls in North Carolina! https://t.co/3cJ1UvbQgZ
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) August 16, 2023
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