Sunday, May 02, 2021

North Carolina lawmakers will not move forward on anti-transgender bills


While several states have been passing bills targeting the transgender community, particularly transgender children playing sports, other states such as North Carolina have been rejecting said bills. 

According to The News & Observer:

Lawmakers decided not to move forward with a controversial bill that would prevent transgender girls from playing on female sports teams. House Speaker Tim Moore confirmed to The News & Observer Thursday that House Bill 358, also known as the Save Women’s Sports Act, is dead after legislative staff found that there had been no complaints in North Carolina on this topic. “A wise legislature does not go out looking for social issues to tap,” Moore said.

. . . Moore’s announcement comes one week after Senate leader Phil Berger’s staff confirmed that another bill opposed by LGBTQ advocates would not move forward in his chamber. Senate Bill 514 would have prevented transgender people under 21 from getting gender-affirming health care and forced teachers to tell parents and guardians about students who did not conform to the gender assigned to them at birth, potentially outing them.

This decision by North Carolina legislators came in the same time frame in which South Carolina House committee also killed legislation which would bar transgender children from school athletic sports teams. This was the third time the legislation fell short.

Not saying that this is a trend of anything, but during the same time these events took place, MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle grilled West Virginia Governor Jim Justice about the anti-trans legislation he recently signed into law.

Apparently Justice couldn't give a clear answer as to why the legislation was needed.