Democrat North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper Vetoes Bills Protecting Children from Transgender Surgery

Cooper, however, asserted that “a doctor’s office is no place for politicians,” adding that the state “should continue to let parents and medical professionals make decisions about the best way to offer gender care for their children.”

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“Ordering doctors to stop following approved medical protocols sets a troubling precedent and is dangerous for vulnerable youth and their mental health. The government should not make itself both the parent and the doctor,” he said, defending his decision.

Further, Cooper also vetoed House Bill 574, aimed at protecting women’s sports, contending that politicians are “inflaming their political culture wars by making broad, uninformed decisions about an extremely small number of vulnerable children that are already handled by a robust system that relies on parents, schools and sports organizations.” He also defended his veto, adding that “Republican governors in other states have vetoed similar bills because they hurt their states’ reputation and economy and because they are neither fair nor needed.”

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Finally, the Democrat governor also vetoed Senate Bill 49, which focuses primarily on parental rights.

In part, the legislation makes it clear that parents have the “right to consent or withhold consent for participation in reproductive health and safety education programs” and the right to know of and approve of preferred pronoun changes for their children, among other rights listed in the legislation. However, Cooper believes the legislation will “scare teachers into silence by injecting fear and uncertainty into classrooms,” despite acknowledging that parents are “the most essential educators for their children.”

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“This ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill also hampers the important and sometimes lifesaving role of educators as trusted advisers when students have nowhere else to turn,” Cooper said, reusing the false name which originated with Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law.

“The rights of parents are well established in state law, so instead of burdening schools with their political culture wars, legislators should help them with better teacher pay and more investments in students,” Cooper added.

However, this does not mean that the bills are dead, as the state legislature could still override the vetoes and make the bills become law, as Republicans control both chambers.

The Democrats’ resistance to protecting parental rights follows the National Education Association (NEA), the country’s largest teacher’s union, effectively feeding into the culture wars, adding Gender Queer to their summer reading list.

A view of the Central Library Building of the Brooklyn Public Library on March 9, 2021. Inset image: book cover of “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images; BNN)

New York Post notes that the book “has been challenged for its depictions and descriptions of oral sex as well as discussions on masturbation.”