NC legislature overrides Gov. Cooper’s veto of GOP’s ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’
Controversial legislation that would limit instruction of LGBTQ+ issues in elementary schools and potentially require schools to “out” LGBTQ+ students to their parents will go into effect after GOP lawmakers successfully defeated a veto by Gov. Roy Cooper.
The bill, titled the Parents’ Bill of Rights, was first proposed by Senate Republicans last year and revived at the start of this year’s session, then sat in limbo for several months before quickly clearing final votes in both chambers in late June. In early July, Cooper vetoed the bill along with two others that would affect LGBTQ+ athletes and minors.
More than a month after Cooper blocked Senate Bill 49 from going into law, the House moved quickly Wednesday evening to complete the second of two veto override votes, following the Senate’s successful override vote just a half hour earlier. The bill was one of several lawmakers moved toward passing over Cooper’s vetoes on Wednesday.
In both chambers, the votes fell along party lines.
Two other contentious bills that would prevent transgender women and girls from playing on women’s sports teams, and prohibit certain surgeries and medical treatments for transgender minors, also broke largely along party lines, but received the support of two House Democrats, Reps. Michael Wray of Halifax County and Garland Pierce of Scotland County.
Rep. Hugh Blackwell of Burke County, meanwhile, who was the only Republican to vote against the bill back in June, voted with the rest of his party in favor of overriding Cooper’s veto on Wednesday.
The Parents’ Bill of Rights, which has been hotly debated this session, would ban curriculum on gender identity, sexual activity or sexuality from being taught in K-4 public school classrooms. It would also require schools to notify parents if their children change their names or pronouns.
Final debates on the House and Senate floors
Sen. Amy Galey, an Alamance County Republican who was one of the bill’s primary sponsors, said its purpose was to acknowledge the role of parents as the “primary influence and protector of their children.”
Opponents of the bill, particularly members of the LGBTQ+ community, have said the bill could endanger or harm kids who are questioning their gender identity and are afraid of how their family will react. But Galey criticized the idea that there are any situations in which it would be appropriate for schools to keep information from parents.
“If you reflect on your own upbringing, and clashes with your own parents, you may remember that you didn’t believe they understood you,” Galey said. “But now, with the wisdom of adulthood, you may see that they have insights and wisdom that you did not appreciate at the time.”
Sen. Natasha Marcus, a Democrat from Mecklenburg County, said that when it comes to public education, there’s a mismatch between the actions lawmakers in Raleigh are taking and what parents back in her district want them to do.
“Not one of them has said to me that they want to erase LGBTQ kids and their families from the classroom, or make them feel excluded, or out them to their parents before they’re ready to talk about it,” Marcus said. “None of them have said to me that they want the public school system to deny the existence, equality, and basic humanity of LGBTQ people, so that their children won’t have to hear mention of people like that.”
This story was originally published August 16, 2023 at 6:07 PM with the headline "NC legislature overrides Gov. Cooper’s veto of GOP’s ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’."
