NC Republicans introduce 6 bills targeting trans children

North Carolina Republicans are continuing to push the state down the path of right-wing extremism after unveiling an array of anti-trans legislation that targets children over the last week and a half.

The goal of the legislation is to put hate and transphobia into our state’s laws to punish those who are different from the straight, almost entirely white males who are writing these bills. The fact that these are focused on kids makes them even more heinous.

Here is a brief look at each bill and its purpose:

• Senate Bill 631 and its House companion bill, HB 574, ban trans students from participating on an athletic team consistent with their gender.
• Senate Bill 636 bans trans and intersex children from participating in athletics at the middle and high school level.
• Senate Bill 560 restricts gender-affirming care for minors and introduces unnecessary requirements for youth, families and health care providers.
• Senate Bill 639 outlaws life-saving treatment for trans youth by making it illegal for health professionals to provide gender-affirming care.
• Senate Bill 641 allows medical providers to discriminate in providing health care to trans children.

According to The Washington Post, right-wing extremists across the country filed more anti-trans legislation in 2022 than at any other point in the history of the United States.

These bills are just another way for state Republicans to ignore the actual problems facing North Carolinians – easy access to firearms and the related gun violence that comes from it, a total lack of adequate funding for public education, low teacher pay that has resulted in teachers quitting and created a lack of incentive for people to become educators, and attempts to restrict reproductive rights.