Republicans in the state Senate are putting multiple controversial LGBTQ policies in a single bill that moved forward Wednesday. The proposals were added to a bill labeled "prevent sexual exploitation" that would regulate pornographic websites and had passed the House with unanimous support.
But the Senate version appears headed to a party-line vote because of add-on legislation that would:
- Allow lawsuits against medical providers over gender transitions. People who later decide to "detransition" back to their gender at birth could file lawsuits, even if they choose to do so 10 years after the surgery or treatment.
- Ban state funding from being used to provide gender-affirming care and gender transition procedures to prison inmates.
- Change the definition of biological sex in state law to exclude gender identity. The new definitions would say that gender identity is "a subjective internal sense" that "shall not be treated as legally or biologically equivalent to sex." The change could affect transgender people seeking to change their birth certificate.
- Require public schools to allow parents to have their children excused from activities or lessons that "impose a substantial burden on the student's religious beliefs."
The new version of House Bill 805 would also require schools to provide parents with a list of school library books and allow the parents to ban their children from checking out specific titles.
Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, said that change is unnecessary.
"There's a narrative out there that librarians, who we all grew up learning from and being guided by, that somehow they've turned evil and they're trying to harm children, and I think it's just a false narrative," Grafstein said.
But supporters of the bill, including the group Moms for Liberty, say they're worried that inappropriate LGBTQ and sexual content is appearing in school libraries.
"We have researched over about 50 school districts, and I can tell you the number of obscene books, sexually explicit books in our public schools is horrendous," said Colleen Miller of the group Pavement Education Project.
Jennifer Williams, a transgender elected official from New Jersey, told the Senate committee that the overall bill "began with very good intentions to protect people harmed by sexual exploitation and pornography," but has now "been tainted and harmed by the attached provisions regarding gender identity, birth certificates and identification amongst others, unnecessarily going after transgender people."
"Attempting to take away their ability to change their gender identity on their documentation via birth certificates will injure them, as well as intersex Carolinians, in many ways," she said.
Legislation with some of the provisions from the new Senate version has already passed the House. The Senate could vote in the coming days, but the House would have to vote in support of the new version.
