The North Carolina legislature defeated Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper’s agenda by overriding his veto of three bills that keep transgender activism in check.

Cooper had vetoed the bills last month, which would ban surgeries and puberty-blockers for minor children, as well as keeping males who claim to be female off sports teams. A third bill also forbids instruction about sexual identity to children third grade and below. (Frankly, I believe public schools should be teaching hard academics instead of this stuff, but that’s where we are now.)

The vote to override the governor was unanimous among Republicans, but it’s interesting that three Democrat senators joined with them. I guess they want to be re-elected.

Howls of protest went up among liberal North Carolina Democrats, starting with Gov. Cooper, who said:

Republicans are serving up a triple threat of political culture wars.

While Democrat Rep. Marcia Morey, a former Olympic swimmer, came up with this tone-deaf howler:

This is just a mean-spirited bill. We’re not talking about world-class athletes.

Oh, okay. No problem for Ms. Morey if high school girls go down to defeat by boys who call themselves girls. It’s okay to destroy their dreams. After all, they’re not “world-class athletes,” like Morey was.

Finally, Democrat Sen. Lisa Grafstein, who is openly lesbian, called the veto override “the most heartbreaking bill in a truly heartbreaking session.”

Tenor.com

What the North Carolina Bills Do

From the average citizen’s perspective, the bills are common sense.

House Bill 808, the “gender-affirming health care ban,” prohibits health care professionals from providing puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries to transgender minors. However, kids who began such treatments prior to August 1 can still continue their treatments with parental consent.

This bill puts North Carolina in league with Finland, Sweden, Norway, France, the U.K., and the Netherlands — all of which have reversed course from providing gender treatment to children. NC is also now the 22nd state in the US to ban such medical practices, and the 19th just this year alone.

House Bill 574, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, keeps males who identify as females from competing in women’s sports from middle school through college. Riley Gaines, the female swimmer who has been actively championing women’s sports, celebrated the veto override:

I am thrilled that the North Carolina state legislature has voted to override Governor Cooper’s senseless veto of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. I have seen firsthand how female athletes at all levels and across various sports are losing not only awards but opportunities to compete at all. This legislation puts an end to the unfair and discriminatory practice of ignoring biological differences.

North Carolinian Payton McNabb was also delighted with the override. She had been severely injured by a transgender male athlete participating on a girls’ volleyball team:

Last fall, I was knocked unconscious after a forceful blow to the head from a volleyball spike by a male on our opponent’s girls’ team. The impact of the ball has left me with long-term physical and mental damage, including blurred vision, partial paralysis on my right side, anxiety, and depression. Because of this new law in North Carolina, female athletes – my little sister, my cousins, and my teammates – will no longer be forced to risk injury at the hands of a male opponent.

Finally, the Parents’ Bill of Rights prohibits the instruction of gender identity and sexuality to children from kindergarten through fourth grade. Sound familiar? It’s similar to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Bill which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law in March, 2022. And no, it’s not the “Don’t Say Gay Bill,” which journalists and activists erroneously called the Florida law.

Like North Carolina, Kansas Also Challenged Its Governor

I’m not a native Kansan, but I’m proud to report that my adopted state was the first to pass a “women’s bill of rights” in April. And, like North Carolina, the Kansas legislature also had to override the veto of a progressive Democrat, Gov. Laura Kelly. This bill, SB 180, prevents men who claim to be women from entering single-sex spaces, such as restrooms.

As state Rep. Brenda Landwehr (R) of Wichita said:

A woman, a grandchild, should be able to walk into a restroom and know they’re in there with other females. If more gender-neutral bathrooms need to be built to accommodate, then fine.

The bill also bars transgender individuals from changing the sex indication on their driver’s license.

Plus, the KS legislature also overrode Kelly’s veto of a bill that ensures that jails separate inmates by biological sex, not identity.

And, in a victory for women’s sports, the KS legislature overrode Kelly’s veto of a bill that bars men from participating in women’s sports. One Democrat, Rep. Marvin Robinson, voted with the Republicans to override the veto. That was particularly courageous on Robinson’s part; he’s a black legislator from urban Kansas City, KS, who faced aggression from activists:

It was all or none. Then they started getting really rude and insulting and attacking and threatened to take me out and, my God what do you do.

KS Attorney General Kris Kobach (R) is also facing activists. Kobach recently filed a petition for the DMV to issue drivers’ licenses that reflect a resident’s sex at birth after five activists — backed by the ACLU — challenged their inability to change their license. (The law went into effect July 1.)

Pound sand, said Kobach:

The attorney general reluctantly brings this action to force the governor’s subordinates … to do what the Women’s Bill of Rights clearly tells them they must do: issue driver’s licenses that reflect a person’s sex at birth and stop letting people select their sex designation at will. Someone must stand up for the law, even if the governor won’t.

Common Sense From a Trans Person

In reading this, you may be surprised to know that a member of our extended family suffers from gender dysphoria. Now in their mid-30’s, this person has dealt with the condition since their teens.

However, they also accept that their condition is not normal, since they’ve been dealing with a hormonal disorder which gave them secondary characteristics of the opposite sex. Broken chromosomes — though inconclusive — are likely the source.

But this person also despises trans activists. “I just want to live my life, and they’re making it hard for me,” they said. This person is single, but has friends. They also have their own business, and maintain a Christian faith and conservative beliefs.

So yes, there are such people among us, and they deserve respect. But what North Carolina and Kansas have done is to push back against what presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called a “tyranny of the minority.”

I don’t think that somebody who’s religious should be forced to officiate a wedding that they disagree with. I don’t think somebody who is a woman who’s worked really hard for her achievements should be forced to compete against a biological man in a swim competition. I don’t think that somebody who’s a woman that respects her bodily autonomy and dignity should be forced to change clothes in a locker room with a man. That’s not freedom. That’s oppression.

My family member would agree.

Featured image: “Person wearing a ‘self made man’ transgender flag t-shirt at the 2022 San Francisco Pride Parade (52177609469)” by Gabe Classon from Berkeley, California, United States is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Cropped.