Reaction from both sides on the passing of new transgender bills in NC

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — On Wednesday, August 16th, the general assembly of NC forced 6 bills into law by overriding Governor Roy Cooper’s vetoes.

Half of the laws affect transgender youth in the state.

One bill bans medical professionals from providing any gender-affirming therapy to anyone under 18.

Another bans transgender girls and women from competing in women’s sports in middle school, high school, and college.

And a third bill, known as the “Parents Bill of Rights”, limits elementary schools from having curricula, or books in the library, dealing with LGBTQ issues.

Matt Sharp, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, said these bills will allow parents to be more directly involved in their child’s life.

“It’s letting parents say, ‘we want to have those discussions at home,” Sharp said. “We want to make sure that parents are deciding when these sensitive topics are discussed. But again, this is all in the bigger context of simply ensuring parents are involved, informed, and able to make decisions about their child’s care and upbringing.”

Despite the bills becoming law, critic said there is hope that they’ll be overturned.

“There’s been actually, a lot of success with these laws being ruled unconstitutional and being oversteps to get involved in family’s medical decisions, their personal private decisions,” Allison Scott, director of impact and innovation for Southern Equality said. “There’s no place for a politician to step in. And also, just being able to allow students, like I said, to play, to play school sports. That has been shown to be unconstitutional as sex discrimination.”

North Carolina is now the 22nd state to ban gender-affirming treatments and the 23rd to ban transgender athletes from participating in sporting events.