The North Carolina General Assembly, controlled by Republicans, voted to override a ban on transgender participation in school sports and gender-affirming care for minors.
The House and the Senate overruled Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of several bills with six decisive final votes on Wednesday evening. The vote has made North Carolina the 22nd state in the country to enact laws prohibiting gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.
North Carolina Bans Transgender Sports, Gender-Affirming Care
The first bill, which is known as HB 574, disallows transgender girls who are in middle school, high school, and college from participating in women's sports. The second bill, titled HB 808, bans medical professionals from providing minors with hormone therapy, puberty-blocking drugs, and surgical gender-transition procedures.
The "Parents Bill of Rights," also known as SB 49, requires teachers to inform parents of students when they question their gender or choose to use a different pronoun for themselves. As per Independent, all three bills were passed into law and are set to take effect following the unanimous veto vote.
However, minors who have already started gender-affirming treatment before Aug. 1 are allowed to continue receiving that care if their doctors decide that it is medically necessary and if they have their parents' consent.
In a statement issued after the override actions, Cooper said that the legislature finally came back to pass discriminatory legislation. However, he argued that Republicans are still adamant about the need to pass a budget when teachers, school bus drivers, and Medicaid Expansion for thousands of working people getting kicked off health plans are in desperate need.
During the voting session, Democratic Rep. Sarah Crawford said that when they were all sworn into office, they swore to uphold the Constitution of the state and the US. She argued that that oath is violated when there is a group of citizens who are eight times more likely to die by suicide and are banned from healthcare.
North Carolina's only out LGBTQ+ senator, Democrat Lisa Grafstein, said that the gender-affirming care bill could be the most heartbreaking in the session. The primary sponsor of the bill, Republican Sen. Joyce Krawiec, argued that the state should protect children from receiving potentially irreversible procedures. At the same time, they are still young, according to the Associated Press.
Potential Risks
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the Endocrine Society deem gender-affirming care safe and medically necessary. Additionally, trans minors are rarely given surgical interventions. Medical professionals commonly prescribe drugs to these individuals to delay puberty and sometimes have them start taking hormones before adulthood.
Supporters of the veto override include North Carolina teen Payton McNabb, who was knocked unconscious during a high school volleyball game last year. It happened after she was struck by a spike made by a transgender player from the opposing team. The incident caused her to suffer blurred vision, partial paralysis on her right side, anxiety, and depression/
She noted that the new law in North Carolina protects female athletes, including her little sister, her cousins, and her teammates, from risks of injury at the hands of a male opponent, said the Washington Times.
