With a Mecklenburg County Democrat casting the deciding vote in the N.C. House of Representatives, the General Assembly on Tuesday overrode Gov. Josh Stein's veto of a bill that takes a number of steps to restrict LGBTQ people.
The House approved the veto of House Bill 805 by a vote of 72-48. Rep. Nasif Majeed, D-Mecklenburg, was the lone House Democrat to vote to override the veto, giving Republicans exactly the three-fifths portion they needed.
The Senate then voted 30-20, completing the override.
House Bill 805 originally passed that chamber as a bipartisan effort that would allow people appearing in sexually explicit photos and videos online to have them removed.
Then the Senate added a number of policies, including requiring a transgender person's birth certificate to also include the document with their original sex and allowing lawsuits against medical providers over gender transitions. The bill also calls for schools to make public a catalog of library books in every school and requires them to let parents or guardians identify books their children should not be allowed to check out.
Rep. Laura Budd, D-Mecklenburg, criticized the process, saying it wrapped the bill she originally co-sponsored in with a number of what she described as culture war issues. Budd described that as taking legislation everyone agreed on and making it divisive.
"When we decide we are going to legislate based on our personal morality, we have to understand two things happen: One, it demonstrates a profound lack of respect for someone else who has a differing set of principles and values, and also, the collateral damage is, it is demonstrably cruel," Budd said.
Rep. Neal Jackson, R-Moore, said House Bill 805 protects the safety and dignity of girls by requiring that children only sleep in rooms with someone who has the same sex at birth as they do on overnight school trips, unless that person is a family member.
"The bill also promotes transparency by empowering parents to review and appeal age-inappropriate materials in school libraries. It fosters open dialogue between educators and communities," Jackson said on the House floor.
In his veto message, Stein said that while he agreed with the portions of House Bill 805 protecting people from exploitation on pornographic websites, the portions addressing LGBTQ people are "mean-spirited."
"My faith teaches me that we are all children of God, no matter our differences and that it is wrong to target vulnerable people, as this legislation does," Stein wrote.
Explaining his vote, Majeed told the N.C. Newsroom, "I'll put it in a blanket situation: There were some moral issues in there that I had some sentiments, some deep sentiments about it. So that's why I support it."
Majeed declined to elaborate further on what those issues are.
Republicans override eight of Stein’s vetoes Tuesday. House Bill 805 was one of two bills Tuesday where a Mecklenburg County Democrat cast the deciding vote to override.
In the other instance, Rep. Carla Cunningham, D-Mecklenburg, voted to override Stein's veto of House Bill 318.
"On most issues, we're going to have a working supermajority," House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, told reporters after Tuesday's session.
