NC House and Senate panels pass bills giving parents a right to reject child's trans identity

Yahoo

07-05-2025

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A demonstrator holds a sign reading "Trans Kids Belong" at a March 2024 rally outside the North Carolina Legislative Building. Republican state senators have introduced a bill in 2025 that would enact new restrictions on the rights of transgender people. (Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline)
Committees in both chambers of the North Carolina legislature approved measures Tuesday that would bar state courts and agencies from finding child abuse or neglect based on the denial of a transgender child's identity.
The 'Parents Protection Act' — also known as Senate Bill 442 and House Bill 560 — protects anyone who 'raises a juvenile consistent with the juvenile's biological sex' from abuse and neglect designations, amending the misdemeanor and felony child abuse statutes to exclude this conduct. It would also bar adoption agencies and foster services from rejecting prospective parents based on their denial of trans identity or refusal to support a trans child's gender transition.
The bill is the latest in the series of anti-trans proposals advanced by the legislature, many of which have focused on trans youth in particular. It advanced the same day the House voted on House Bill 519, a 'Parents' Medical Bill of Rights' requiring doctors to provide parents and guardians access to minors' medical records, which LGBTQ+ activists have warned could out trans youth.
Rep. Donnie Loftis (R-Gaston) (photo: NCGA video stream)
Sen. Amy Galey (R-Alamance), one of the bill's primary sponsors in the Senate, said the bill's aim is to protect caretakers' ability to raise their children without the threat of losing custody because they 'refuse to affirm the gender identity of a child who is experiencing gender dysphoria' and shield them from prosecution should they refuse to support a gender transition for their child.
Rep. Donnie Loftis (R-Gaston), a lead sponsor of the House version of the bill, cited instances in Indiana and California in which parents lost custody of trans children because they refused to support their gender identity on the basis of religious views. He also pointed to the case of a woman in Oregon who was rejected as a potential adoptive parent because she would not commit to supporting a child's hypothetical gender transition.
'It's a bill that upholds one of the most fundamental principles in American law and family life: that parents, not the state, are the ones best positioned to care and guide their children,' Loftis told a meeting of the House Judiciary 2 Committee. 'This is not just a legal tradition, it's a moral one — we must presume that parents love their children more than any bureaucrat or judge ever could.'
Galey and Loftis both stressed that the bill would not permit parents or guardians to justify abusive or neglectful conduct by citing gender identity. 'It does not allow parents to abuse their child and try to defend their abuse by saying they disagree with their child's feelings,' Loftis said.
Loftis added that the bill does not seek to mandate any set of views on gender for parents; instead, he described the motivation as protecting parents' rights to exercise 'traditional, historic, and scientific beliefs about gender.'
Sen. Lisa Grafstein (Photo: NCGA)
In the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake) raised the concern that the bill does nothing to offer these same protections to parents who support a child's transition from allegations of abuse and neglect over their views on gender identity.
'It doesn't protect parents who do affirm their child's gender identity. It doesn't protect parents who support the kinds of counseling and other supportive measures that may be available,' Grafstein said. 'I sent you a few articles about some claims that have been made about parents who are in support of their child's gender identity being accused of being abusive toward their children.'
Galey said that reports for abuse over gender affirming care were 'not happening' and 'there's not a basis in fact for that assertion.' In response, Grafstein cited an order by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that families giving children access to such care be investigated for child abuse.
The House committee debate largely focused on the stipulations for foster care specifically. Rep. Deb Butler (D-New Hanover), herself a foster parent, said a higher standard must be set for foster placement so that trans children are not knowingly sent to parents who deny their identity.
'The standard has always been when placing a child, what is in the best interest of that child?' Butler said. 'By the time you get to foster care, you've already suffered immeasurably, and to not place a child who has expressed gender identity issues or concerns — to place them into a home with the knowledge that that family is not supportive or thoughtful about that issue is doing further damage to that child.'
While the Senate panel saw no public comment on the bill, in the House, both trans rights supporters and conservative religious activists made their case to lawmakers. Kyle Warren-Love, a trans man from Caswell County, said his community supports him and he wants trans children in foster care to receive the same.
'We want the same care and support for children who are in foster care in a tough situation,' Warren-Love said. 'This pain should not be encouraged, this pain should not be prolonged, but this bill will allow exactly that.'
Jansen White, the Department of Health and Human Services' director of legislative affairs, said she fears the provisions around foster care undermine the ability of the courts and social services to determine the best placement for a child.
John Rustin, president of the North Carolina Family Policy Council, said his nonprofit 'wholeheartedly' supports the bill on the grounds that it 'seeks to protect the rights of parents to raise their children consistent with their God-given, innate biological sex.'
'Parents should never fear reprisal from the government or others for recognizing and acknowledging the difference between male and female and for raising their children accordingly,' Rustin said.
Joseph Backholm, a government affairs representative with the NC Values Coalition, focused his remarks on the foster care concerns. In his interpretation, 'the bill does not grant any foster family a specific right to a specific child,' but instead forbids blanket prohibitions on prospective parents who would not support a gender transition. 'It, of course, does not disable DHHS' ability to specifically evaluate what's in the best interest of the child,' he said.
Both versions of the bill also passed their chambers' respective Rules Committees Tuesday afternoon and can now be scheduled for a floor vote. Under the General Assembly's crossover deadline, both measures must pass at least one chamber by the end of the week to remain eligible for enactment this session.