Sen. Buck Newton --seen here in a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting last week -- has reworked a House Bill intended to protect people from sexual exploitation to one that targets transgender surgery and access to public school library books. (Photo: NCGA video stream)
The North Carolina Senate voted Tuesday to approve a controversial bill that defines biological sex and recognizes only male and female genders, mirroring one of President Donald Trump’s earliest executive orders.
“We cannot ignore the biological realities,” Sen. Buck Newton told the Senate chamber in Tuesday’s floor debate.
House Bill 805 started as a noncontroversial measure to prevent the sexual exploitation of both adults and minors. It passed the House in May 113-0. In recent weeks, however, in the North Carolina Senate transformed it into a catchall for a collection of conservative social agenda priorities, including provisions that target transgender individuals and provide parents with expanded rights to challenge school library books.
The vote on the bill, which was 27-4, precipitated a lengthy and intense debate about Senate rules and an additional series of procedural votes. Most Democratic senators said that they chose to vote “present” on the matter because of their objection to the way the way a consensus bill was amended with items they argue were not germane to the original subject and therefore in violation of Senate rules.
As the Senate voting machines do not include an option for members to vote “present” like many other legislative bodies, however, Senate Republicans responded by moving to treat the “present” voters as if they were excused from voting — a status they argued would bar those members from taking any further votes on the bill if it were to come again before the Senate.
At one point, citing an 18th Century law that purported to impose a fine of $10 on lawmakers who fail to carry out their duties, Senate Democratic leader Sydney Batch of Wake County offered to make a payment of cash for each of her members who voted “present.”
In the end, Senate Rules Chair Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick, Columbus and New Hanover) used a procedural move to advance the bill to its 3rd reading where it was approved on a voice vote — thus diffusing the controversy.
During the debate on the original vote, Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch said the bill that was written to protect children was “hijacked, gutted” and loaded up with culture war amendments.
Newton responded by offering yet another amendment that would prohibit public school students from sharing sleeping quarters with a member of the other biological sex during field trips or school sponsored events. The amendment was approved on a partisan vote.
Democratic amendments that would have raised the age to marry to 18, appropriated more funds for the state victims’ compensation fund, and required the surrender of a firearm upon the issuance of a domestic violence protective order were rejected by the Republican majority. Republicans also defeated a motion by Sen. Kandie Smith (D-Edgecombe, Pitt) that would have divided the bill into two different sections so that she and her colleagues would have been enabled to vote in favor of the bill’s noncontroversial provisions.
The Senate’s version of HB 805 would ban the use of state funds for transgender surgeries for any prisoner incarcerated in the state correction system.
The statute of limitations on medical malpractice lawsuits brought by people who have undergone a gender transition procedure would be extended from three years to ten. The legislation would also require that the original birth certificate be preserved at the state and county whenever a transgender person seeks to have their gender changed on that legal document.
The original portion of the bill, which won unanimous support in the House, enacts guardrails for online pornography. It creates age verification and consent requirements for individuals appearing in pornographic images, provides for the removal of those images, and create enforcement mechanisms. The Attorney General would be empowered to impose a fine of up to $10,000 a day for each day a pornographic image remains online when non-consensual content is not removed after 72-hours of being notified.
HB 805 was further amended last week to excuse students from specific classroom discussions, activities or assigned readings that the student, parent, or guardian believes would impose a substantial burden on the student’s religious beliefs. Parents would also have access to a searchable list of school library books, with the power to mandate which library books may not be borrowed by the student.
The North Carolina Values Coalition said the bill attempts to solve “the obscenity problem in our schools” related to curriculum and library books. The ACLU of North Carolina said the legislation amounts to harmful attacks on transgender people, and a desire to push them out of public life.
Rob Schofield contributed to this report.
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