Policy | Family Talk

North Carolina Defends Children

Written by Gary Bauer | August 28, 2023

One month ago, the North Carolina legislature passed three commonsense measures to protect that state’s children. Democrat Governor Roy Cooper shockingly vetoed all three commonsense proposals. Last Wednesday, the GOP “supermajority” in the North Carolina House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to again pass the child protections by overriding the governor’s vetoes. 
 
We hail this victory, but are forced to ask why would the governor veto the legislation in the first place. Here are the specifics of the three laws:

    1. The Parents’ Bill of Rights prohibits teachers from kindergarten through fourth grade from presenting material about sexuality or gender identity. The law also requires parents to be informed if their child is using new names or pronouns at school. (Some states like California are actually ordering teachers to essentially lie to parents or withhold information about their children.)
    2. The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act prevents biological boys who now claim or believe they are females from competing in women’s sports. The law stipulates that a “student’s sex shall be recognized based solely on the student’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
    3. The third law addresses the grossly misnamed “gender-affirming care” that the trans lobby and left-wing/progressive politicians are pushing. The North Carolina law prohibits “gender transitioning surgical or chemical procedures from being given to anyone under age 18.” (There are a few limited exceptions.) Doctors violating this law could lose their medical licenses, as they should.

Sadly, Governor Cooper was defiant in the wake of the legislature’s override of his vetoes. He attacked the legislature for spending time on these laws that protect children and parents’ rights and demanded that the legislature get the budget passed instead. 
 
Of course, the legislature can do both. Governor Cooper, unfortunately, is totally committed to the radical trans agenda, which harms children, is unfair to girls participating in sports, and erases parental rights. JDFI sends the North Carolina conservative legislative majority three cheers for caring about and protecting their state’s children.