Transgender youth in North Carolina lost access Wednesday to gender-affirming medical treatments after the Republican-led General Assembly overrode the governor's vetoes of that legislation and other bills touching on gender in sports and LGBTQ+ instruction in the classroom.
North Carolina becomes the 22nd state to enact legislation restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.
Democratic Sen. Lisa Grafstein, North Carolina's only out LGBTQ+ state senator, said the gender-affirming care bill "May be the most heartbreaking bill in a truly heartbreaking session."
Earlier, the Senate and House voted minutes apart to override another veto of a bill limiting LGBTQ+ instruction in the early grades.
Democratic Rep. John Autry of Mecklenburg County, who has a transgender grandchild, choked up while debating the gender-affirming care bill on the House floor.
Parents of trans and nonbinary children, like Elizabeth Waugh of Orange County, said before the voting that they have been weighing whether to move their families out of North Carolina so their children will have unrestricted access to gender-affirming health care.
"The veto of this bill was not only a veto on women's rights, but a slap in the face to every female in the state," said McNabb, who says she suffered a concussion and neck injury last year after a transgender athlete hit her in the head with a volleyball during a school match.
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