Republicans in North Carolina overturned a series of last-ditch vetoes from Democratic governor Roy Cooper to enact a sweeping overhaul of state laws governing gender-reassignment procedures for minors.
Under the newly passed legislation, medical practitioners in the state will no longer be allowed to administer puberty blockers, hormone therapies, or conduct surgical interventions on minors, apart from those who began such treatments before August 1. Moreover, all state funding for such procedures will be blocked.
North Carolina’s general assembly also successfully bypassed Governor Cooper’s veto seeking to block bills preventing biological males from competing against girls and women in high school or college sports. Additionally, gender-identity content will be removed from all public school curricula.
“There are those who are adamant that traditional public schools should be the only educational avenue that the state provides to families,” Republican state Amy Galey told the News & Observer following the vote on Wednesday.
“However, many of these same people defend the pushing of parents out of their child’s public school education, support keeping the truth about a student’s mental health from parents and telling lies and resist every effort to keep sex out of elementary schools or to remove inappropriate materials that can not be printed in a newspaper or shown on TV news,” the senator added.
Governor Cooper denounced the legislative agenda of state Republicans for endangering the LGBT community. “The legislature finally comes back to pass legislation that discriminates, makes housing less safe, blocks FEMA disaster recovery funding, hurts the freedom to vote and damages our economy,” the governor said in a statement.
“Yet they still won’t pass a budget when teachers, school bus drivers and Medicaid Expansion for thousands of working people getting kicked off their health plans every week are desperately needed,” Cooper added. “These are the wrong priorities, especially when they should be working nights and weekends if necessary to get a budget passed by the end of the month.”
In April, then-Democratic state representative Tricia Cotham crossed the aisle and joined the Republican party, granting the GOP a crucial supermajority capable of overriding Cooper’s veto power.
“The modern-day Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me and to so many others throughout this state and this country,” Coltham announced during a recent press conference at the time.
“The Party wants to villainize anyone who has free thought, free judgment, has solutions,” Coltham said. “If you don’t do exactly what the Democrats want you to do, they will try to bully you. They will try to cast you aside.”
Democrats will "villainize anyone who has free thought, free judgement, has solutions," says North Carolina State Rep Tricia Cotham after switching parties.
"If you don't do exactly what the Democrats want you to do, they will try to bully you. They will try to cast you aside." pic.twitter.com/Jhnn1TxXjK
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 5, 2023
The political transition drew the ire of Cooper. “Rep. Cotham’s votes on women’s reproductive freedom, election laws, LGBTQ rights and strong public schools will determine the direction of the state we love,” the governor noted in a statement. “It’s hard to believe she would abandon these long held principles and she should still vote the way she has always said she would vote when these issues arise, regardless of party affiliation.”
Backed by their supermajority in both chambers of the state general assembly, Republicans passed a new twelve-week abortion ban in May over the objections of Cooper, who explicitly sought to pressure Cotham to vote with Democrats.
Cotham released a statement afterward explaining her support of the veto. “After an extensive review, I believe this bill strikes a reasonable balance on the abortion issue and represents a middle ground that anyone not holding one of the two extremist positions can support,” she wrote.
Among the other vetoes North Carolina lawmakers overrode on Wednesday include a bill pertaining to energy policies governing home building and charter schools.