By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM
Associated Press/Report for America
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A GOP supermajority in the North Carolina House voted Wednesday to override the Democratic governor’s veto of legislation to ban gender-affirming treatments for transgender minors, putting those youth just a vote away from losing access to that care.
The vote followed by mere minutes an earlier vote by the chamber overriding Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of another bill banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams from middle and high school through college.
House lawmakers voted 73-46 to surmount Cooper’s veto of the bill that would bar medical professionals — with limited exceptions — from providing hormone therapy, puberty-blocking drugs and surgical gender-transition procedures to anyone under 18. Minors who began treatment before Aug. 1 could continue receiving that care under parental consent if their doctors deem it medically necessary.
Democratic state Rep. John Autry of Mecklenburg County, who has a transgender grandchild, choked up while debating the gender-affirming care bill on the House floor. “Just stop it,” he begged his Republican colleagues shortly before they voted to enact the law.
The House vote left North Carolina one vote away from becoming the latest state to ban gender-affirming health care for transgender youth. Votes were also expected on both measures in the Senate later Wednesday to enact the legislation over Cooper’s vetoes.
But the Senate’s first action late Wednesday afternoon was on another veto override bid entirely. In a 27-18 vote, the Senate completed the first half of an override vote on a bill requiring public school teachers in most circumstances to alert parents before they call a student by a different name or pronoun. It would also prohibit instruction about gender identity and sexuality in K-4 classrooms, which critics have likened to the Florida law that opponents call “Don’t Say Gay.” The Senate immediately sent the bill to the House for a final vote Wednesday night.
The Senate has a similarly veto-proof GOP majority as the House. If Republicans in the Senate succeed as expected, they would make North Carolina the 22nd state to enact legislation restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for trans minors. Many of those laws are facing court challenges and advocates have promised similar challenges in North Carolina.
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.
Parents of transgender and nonbinary children, like Elizabeth Waugh of Orange County, said they have been considering whether to move their families out of North Carolina so their children will have unrestricted access to gender-affirming care.
Waugh’s nonbinary child did not begin receiving treatment before Aug. 1 and would need to travel elsewhere if they decide they want to start taking hormones.
“I have felt like I had a lump in my throat for months,” Waugh said Wednesday before the House vote. “Just talking to other families who are dealing with this, I mean, the pain that they are feeling, the suffering, the fear for their children — it’s devastating.”
Local LGBTQ+ rights advocates had been bracing for House and Senate override votes expected Wednesday. They said the were expecting both bills would become law and have vowed to challenge them in court.
The first override vote by the House came Wednesday on Cooper’s veto of a bill that would prohibit transgender girls from playing on girls’ middle school, high school and college sports teams. The House overrode that veto 74-45.
A former Olympic swimmer, Rep. Marcia Morey, spoke in House floor debate about the impact of that bill on 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.”
Critics 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 supporters of that bill such 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.
The GOP holds veto-proof majorities in both chambers for the first time since 2018, affording Republicans a clear path to consider certain LGBTQ+ restrictions that had not previously gained traction in North Carolina.
