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NC Republicans say the “Parent’s Bill of Rights” is about trans kids, not gay kids. Seriously? | Opinion

North Carolina’s “Parent’s Bill of Rights” was introduced Tuesday afternoon, and it’s already hurling toward the Senate floor. One moment at Wednesday’s hearing on our state’s version of a “Don’t Say Gay” bill revealed a lot about the intention — and the strategy — behind it.

During the education committee’s public comment, the majority of speakers spoke about their own experiences of being young and LGBTQ in North Carolina or having LGBTQ children in the public school system.

Brenda Dimas, one of the speakers, talked about her childhood best friend, who was outed to their parents. When this happened, the parents pulled their child out of school and forbade them from contacting Dimas, who is also LGBTQ.

“You don’t have to love us, but your job requires you to protect and serve all your constituents, even the gay ones,” Dimas told the committee.

Instead of sitting with this and other comments, the co-chairs of the committee — both primary sponsors of the bill — split hairs over who the bill was actually targeting.

“A couple of commenters spoke about being gay, and [said] that this bill would harm gay students and put them in danger,” Republican Sen. Amy Galey told the room. “I just wanted to emphasize that nowhere in this bill does it talk about sexual orientation, or whether a student is gay or not. It only addresses the pronouns in the name which may or may not be indicative of an issue for the child.”

It’s possible that Galey assumes making this distinction will appease cisgender people who are speaking out. For decades, there has been tension within the gay liberation movement over protecting trans members of the community. The late transgender activist Sylvia Rivera was famously booed off stage at a 1973 Pride festival in New York City for calling out the hypocrisy of gay rights groups ignoring the work drag queens and trans people had done to elevate the entire movement. During and after the fight for marriage equality, many activists criticized the way trans people were sidelined.

“When talking about many of the bigger, practical financial issues that marriage helps, same-sex marriage has really only benefited cisgender white lesbians and gay men who already had some upward mobility,” Smith College lecturer Cory Albertson told PBS News Hour in a 2020 interview marking the five-year anniversary of the Obergefell ruling.

Galey’s insistence that the bill only targets trans people, not gay people, is an argument meant to divide a marginalized community. What’s troubling is how effective division like this can be.

Galey also may be showing political hand of conservatives pursuing these bills. Republicans are counting on some Democrats and liberals, even other gay people, still being uncomfortable with transgender people. They’re calculating that because the trans community is still so marginalized in our society, voters from either party won’t feel strongly enough to fight against these bills.

Regardless of whether the Parent’s Bill of Rights is aimed at transgender students only, it’s chipping away at larger restrictions on LGBTQ people. Even Galey’s co-sponsor, Sen. Michael Lee, did not seem to think sexual orientation was a separate issue.

“Whether it’s gender identity, whether it’s sexual orientation: parents have the right to know because they might be able to help their child,” Lee said.

This is the danger of legislation like the Parent’s Bill of Rights. The focus may be restricting transgender kids, but the fear that it instills in educators and students — combined with a lack of knowledge about the intricate details of the law — will result in educators being afraid to talk about any LGBTQ issue in school.

Ignoring the most marginalized members of the LGBTQ community will hurt everyone in the long run, whether you’re gay or straight. It is incumbent on us, as allies to the trans community, to unite against transphobic legislation that comes up this legislative session.