(The Center Square) – Gender policy legislation inclusive of recognizing only two sexes has cleared the North Carolina Senate and is headed back to the House of Representatives.
And it goes back very different from which it came.
First filed April 7, the bill from Rep. Neal Jackson, R-Moore, – Prevent Sexual Exploitation/Women and Minors, known also as House Bill 805 – was five pages and would put a new article into the General Statutes dealing with sexual exploitation of women and minors. It involved consent, distribution of images, activities, online entities and age verification.
House passage of 113-0 on May 7 is not expected to be repeated because the Senate’s amended version – up to eight pages – returns with definitions of men and women by reproductive potential or capacity; parents’ rights in the classroom; and prohibition on taxpayer-funded procedures for sex transitions.
Six amendments passed on Tuesday before the second and third readings passage. Multiple Democrats voted present rather than yes or no in protest, and Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, president pro tempore of the chamber, instructed the record to reflect excused for the vote.
In declaring there are two sexes, the bill language says it is “without regard to an individual’s psychological, chosen or subjective experience of gender.” It defines gender identity as “a term that means an individual’s self-declared identity that may not align with biological sex and being a subjective internal sense, shall not be treated as legally or biologically equivalent to sex.”
The House will need to agree to religious objections for school assignments; parental limits on school library books that can be borrowed; and library book databases in each school district.
If enacted, the law would become effective Jan. 1.
