Lawmakers send bill targeting gender, public school discussions to NC governor

What was once strictly a bipartisan proposal to crack down on online exploitation of women and children is headed to the North Carolina governor's desk packed with culture-war provisions that Democrats accused Republicans of inserting for political gain.

Republicans in the North Carolina House of Representatives gave a final legislative blessing Wednesday to a bill that now includes provisions strictly defining gender and offering North Carolina parents new influence over the content their child is exposed to in public school.

The GOP-led House, with a vote of 65-43, sent House Bill 805 to Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, who has 10 days to sign it, veto it, or let it become law without his signature.

The House previously supported the bill unanimously, when it focused solely on sexual exploitation. But Senate Republicans added several proposals to the bill that ultimately put House Democrats, who are the minority in the chamber, in an uncomfortable position.

Many wanted to vote "yes" to support the anti-exploitation measures of the bill, but they didn't want to support the smattering of Republican add-ons, including the gender definitions and a number of measures that regulate school books.

During debate on the House floor Wednesday, opponents said the bill was now unconstitutional and unkind to transgender people, and they accused Republicans of making it a political tool that would be used against them on the campaign trail.

The portions added by the Senate, and ultimately approved by the House, would:

• Define gender as two sexes: male and female.
• Bar state prisons from using state taxpayer funds to pay for sex reassignment surgery for inmates.
• Require transgender North Carolinians to use their original birth certificate in official transactions.
• Allow public school students to request to be excused from any course material if they believe the material would “impose a substantial burden” on their religious beliefs.
• Require public school boards to post a list of books available in their schools.
• Require public schools to block students from borrowing certain books, if instructed to do so by that student’s parent.
• Extend the period under which people can sue medical providers for issues related to gender reassignment surgery, for up to 10 years after a procedure was performed.

“It strips access to medically necessary health care to transgender youth and others, not because it saves money, not because the science supports it, but because some in this chamber wants to impose their personal beliefs on other people's bodies,” said state Rep. Deb Butler, D-New Hanover, who called the bill “governmental overreach of the worst kind” before urging colleagues to vote against it.

Republican state lawmakers have passed numerous laws in recent years seeking to limit the rights of transgender people — including recent laws to ban gender-affirming medical treatments for children, to ban transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams and to require school employees to “out” children who are questioning their gender identity to their parents in some circumstances.

Republicans have also introduced a number of bills this year that seek to provide parents with more control over their children, in the doctor’s office and at school.

State Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wlison, led his chamber’s changes to the bill. He said the additions are intended to follow in the footsteps of President Donald Trump, who has signed executive orders related to transgender issues.

“We all have to recognize that women are being systematically erased from our language, whether it's changing words from ‘pregnant women’ to ‘pregnant person’, or ‘mother’ to a ‘birthing parent,’” Newton said Tuesday on the Senate floor. He said he wanted to send a message “that women exist and they're supported here in North Carolina.”

“We cannot ignore the biological realities, and we believe our state laws should reflect that,” Newton said.

Democrats have said the additions could also chill classroom discussions of historical events and they feared the Senate changes could jeopardize good-faith efforts by Republicans and Democrats in the House to crack down on sexual exploitation. Some also saw the changes as a sign of political disrespect between the chambers and urged colleagues to send the bill back to the Senate with the hopes the chamber would change it back to focus on its original intent — including helping remove from the internet images of people who were coerced into pornographic acts.

House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, said many of the additions were in line with legislation supported by others in his chamber. “Obviously our caucus unanimously approves of banning state dollars from going to sex changes for inmates, for example,” Hall told reporters late Wednesday.

State Rep. Laura Budd, D-Mecklenburg, who co-sponsored the original bill said she faced questions about working alongside Republicans on the legislation but pressed forward and spent a lot of her time with some of the most conservative members of the House because she believed it would yield new laws to help women and children.

“It's for the single mom who couldn't put food on the table,” Budd said during a speech on the House floor Wednesday, describing the scenarios the bill seeks to undo. “So some jerk took advantage of her and said, ‘Well, if you do this without your clothes on, I'll pay for groceries.’ Guess what — your baby's got to eat. You do what you got to do. This bill would have helped that parent.”

Budd accused some of the Republicans she trusted in the bill-drafting process of betraying her so that, after Democrats voted against the new version of the bill, Republicans could lob accusations against them on the campaign trail.

“You sold out,” she said. “You capitulated for a campaign donation, a flyer, a sound bite, a headline.”

Hall, the House speaker, then used his gavel to cut her off for violating the chamber’s rules against speculating about the motivations of other House members.

One of Budd’s co-sponsors, Republican Rep. Neal Jackson of Moore County, was absent from the vote Wednesday.