Anti-Trans Bills Emerging in North Carolina
Eli Styles | February 8, 2024
The following bills discussed pertain to the legislature still circulating in 2024. While there were many anti-trans bills introduced and passed in 2023, this article will not discuss them in depth.
In the past year, there has been a massive increase in the amount of anti-LGBTQ bills being introduced in state legislature across the country. In 2023, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) tracked 506 anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S.. In 2024, that number amassed to 381 in just the first 30 days of January and presently sits at 398.
North Carolina (N.C.) is responsible for six of these bills. Three of the bills are circling the N.C. House of Representatives, while the other three are in the N.C. Senate.
It is important to note that House Bill 43 (H.B. 43), which is cited by the ACLU as a current bill, was passed last year in the form of House Bill 808 (H.B. 808). This bill prevents medical practitioners from providing puberty blockers, hormones or gender-affirming surgery to anyone under the age of 18. Minors who had begun receiving care before Aug. 1, 2023 were able to continue care, but those who had yet to begin are no longer able to start.
House Bill 786 (H.B. 786) contains 79 lines of explanation about why the proposing representatives believe it to be unsafe for transgender youth to receive gender-affirming care.
The language used in the draft, which can be accessed above, is extremely binary. The minors in question are referred to as male or female and there is significant detail given to the importance of their sex organs remaining “intact”.
H.B. 786 also protects “whistleblowers” from discrimination should they choose to testify about a violation of the preceding article, unless the information is prohibited from being shared by law. Some provisions allow for civil remedies to be awarded to anyone aggrieved by a violation of the article. Lastly, H.B. 786 allows for children to be outed to their families or school systems by teachers against their will.
An amendment was introduced to the General Statutes — the official N.C. legal code — in the form of House Bill 673 (H.B. 673) in April of 2023.
This bill, should it be passed, would make it illegal for “male or female impersonators” — in other words, drag queens — to provide live entertainment as it would be considered to be “adult” and “exotic”. The consequence of violating this bill would be a Class A1 misdemeanor for the first offense, and a Class 1 felony for the second.
H.B. 673 poses a danger to drag queens and the queer community as a whole. The livelihood and reputation of N.C. drag performers are put at risk by this bill.
The last house bill that has been introduced in N.C. so far in 2024 is House Bill 819 (H.B. 819). This is the companion to Senate Bill 641 (S.B. 641), meaning that they were introduced in both the N.C. House of Representatives and the N.C. Senate at the same time containing the same language.
H.B. 819 is also known as the “Medical Ethics Defense Act”. This bill protects healthcare providers and medical practitioners from having to give care that violates their own conscience. Practitioners will not be able to be prosecuted for “engaging in speech or expressive activity protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States” unless it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that this speech directly caused harm to another person.
Essentially, H.B. 819 — and S.B. 641 — protect healthcare providers or other people in positions of power from receiving consequences for things they say regarding religion, politics, morals or other ethical topics. Representative Donna White of N.C. House District 26 sponsors H.B. 819, while senators Hise, B. Newton and Sanderson are the primary sponsors of S.B. 641.
Senate Bill 636 (S.B. 636) concerns school athletic transparency.
The bill is not entirely focused on transgender issues, but beginning on line 18 of page two it does set up “biological participation requirements”, which essentially state that there shall be only male, female or co-ed interscholastic sports and that sex should be solely recognized based on a person’s reproductive biology at birth.
S.B. 636 specifically mentions that “interscholastic athletic activities designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex”. This quiet targeting of trans women perpetuates their othering and provides a platform for anti-trans N.C. dwellers to attack young trans girls for wanting to play sports in the category in which they belong.
Lastly, Senate Bill 560 (S.B. 560) is the Medical Treatment for Minors Act. It aims to prevent gender-affirming care for minors and to treat gender dysphoria with options other than hormones or surgery. S.B. 560 makes it unlawful for physicians to provide gender transition care for minors. There are explained situations in which gender transition care will be allowed, but the provision is made that the appointments must be made face-to-face rather than over Telehealth.
Some of the circumstances in which the prohibition of gender-affirming care is dissolved in accordance with S.B. 560 are in the case of sexual development disorders, treatment of a physical disorder or if the six conditions explained in S.B. 560 are satisfied.
Every one of these bills not only poses a threat to the future of gender-affirming care and trans existence in N.C. but is already damaging the trans community by dominating headlines and making trans healthcare into a debate over basic human rights.
Should these bills be passed into law — which they are likely to do in most cases — there will be exceedingly detrimental effects to the N.C. transgender community. Minors will be affected the most deeply, as the majority of the bills circulating the N.C. Congress are aimed at removing gender-affirming care for those under 18.
For more information on anti-trans laws in N.C. before 2024, read this article by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and stay updated on translegislation.com or the ACLU anti-LGBTQ bill tracker.