Democrats serving on the North Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee asked Republican Sen. Buck Newton (R-Greene, Wayne and Wilson) a week ago to reconsider his efforts to amend House Bill 805 — a noncontroversial measure designed to prevent sexual exploitation of women and minors that won unanimous support in the House — into a vehicle to advance the conservative social agenda on issues of gender identity and sexuality.
On Wednesday, Newton gave his answer: “No.”
As Newsline reported last week, when the bill was first considered by the Senate Committee, Newton — a committee co-chair — put forth a proposed amended version that defined the state’s recognition of two biological sexes: male and female. Newton also proposed the state maintain the vital records of anyone seeking to change the sex on their birth certificate.
At Wednesday’s committee hearing, Newton went a step further by introducing new language aimed at transgender individuals and school libraries. One amendment would extend the statute of limitations on medical malpractice lawsuits brought by people who have undergone a gender transition procedure from three years to ten.
“We have a fairly detailed, longstanding malpractice system on our state. I’m wondering what the reason is for treating this particular type of medical care differently than standard malpractice and other kinds of medical care?” asked Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake).
Newton said individuals who’ve sought out gender transition procedures are often in a “very precarious frame of mind” when they make the decision to have surgery or undergo treatment.
Senator Lisa Grafstein questions Sen. Buck Newton in a June 18, 2025 Judiciary meeting. (Photo: NCGA video stream)“A lot of times they’re not aware of a lot of the circumstances, negative implications for themselves until much, much later after traditional statute limitations would run. So, we thought it was appropriate to extend it out to ten years,” said Newton.
Grafstein responded that more people regret knee replacement surgery than regret gender affirming care.
Newton said the extended statute of limitations on malpractice lawsuits was appropriate since gender reassignment surgery had become “fashionable.”
The Wake Democrat called that comment “snide” and an insult to people who make important life decisions around these issues.
Parental access to library books
Unrelated to the malpractice provision, a second change in Newton’s new version of the legislation would also provide parents with access to a searchable list of library books available at each public school.
Local boards of education would be required to adopt policies to allow a student or their parent to request that the student be excused from specific classroom discussions or assigned readings if they believe it “imposes a substantial burden on the student’s religious beliefs” or invades the student’s privacy by calling attention to the student’s religion.
Sen. Sophia Chitlik (D-Durham) suggested the amendment as worded could lead to censorship, preventing a student from reading or learning about the Holocaust in school.
Brian Gwyn, a staff attorney and legislative analyst, said in that example students would be given an alternate assignment aligned with the standard course study.
“So just to confirm, the answer is a parent can forbid a child from reading books about the Holocaust if they believe that didn’t occur. Is that correct?” pressed Chitlik.
“From checking out a book in the library, that is correct,” answered Gwyn.
Newton could not answer as to whether the NC Department of Public Instruction or the NC School Board Association were consulted.
He said his amendment was intended to empower parents.
“We’re seeing a lot of instances of libraries being filled up with all kinds of materials at the very least or not age appropriate for the children who would check it out. Parents are totally in the dark.”
Grafstein said Newton’s assessment simply was not true.
“There’s a narrative out there that librarians, who we all grew up learning from and being guided by, that somehow, they’ve turned evil and they’re trying to harm children. It’s just a false narrative,” Grafstein told the committee.
Part of a larger strategy?
Tami Fitzgerald with the North Carolina Values Coalition (Photo: NCGA video stream)Tami Fitzgerald with the North Carolina Values Coalition praised the amendment for offering a remedy to transgender individuals who may later detransition.
“Second, it solves or attempts to solve the obscenity problem in our schools, both related to curriculum and library books,” Fitzgerald said.
Reighlah Collins, Policy Counsel for the ACLU of North Carolina, said the amendment and reworked bill amount to harmful attacks on transgender people.
“It’s part of a larger strategy to push transgender people out of public and civic life,” Collins responded.
Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch (D-Wake) again appealed to Newton to strip out his controversial amendment and return to the original bill to protect women and minors, bipartisan legislation that raised no objections in the state House.
“You’ve been around this place long enough to know pretty much how it works, and so the answer to your question is respectfully, ‘no,'” answered Newton.
HB 805 advanced on a voice vote to the Senate Rules Committee, which is slated to hear the bill on Thursday.
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