LGBTQ+ group files federal complaints over North Carolina's new laws on parents' rights, trans kids in sports
North Carolina education officials have failed to stop discrimination against LGBTQ+ students as a new parents’ law goes into effect across the state, LGBTQ+ advocates argued in two federal complaints filed Tuesday.
The Campaign for Southern Equality has voiced opposition to a law known by Republican supporters as the Parents’ Bill of Rights, and another law that prohibits transgender students from participating in sports that align with their gender identity.
The group filed the complaints Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice, which will decide whether to investigate them.
The complaints fault the North Carolina State Board of Education and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction for not protecting LGBTQ+ students and not providing sufficient guidance for schools on how to implement the laws.
The resulting discrimination, the group argues, constitutes a Title IX violation. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. Institutions that receive federal funding must be compliant with it to continue to receive that funding. North Carolina, like all other U.S. states, receives hundreds of millions of dollars every year in federal funding.
The parents' law requires, among other things, schools to notify parents if their children ask to go by a different name or pronoun. That’s something someone might ask to for if they are transgender, and advocates argue the law would require schools to “out” some kids to their parents.
The transgender athlete law would prohibit participation on a girls team by someone who was born of the male sex but now identifies as female, even if they have medically transitioned.
The 113-page complaint says discrimination is occurring because books that feature LGBTQ+ characters are being removed from schools, schools are “outing” LGBTQ+ students to their parents and classmates, transgender students are barred from participating in sports and LGBTQ+ students have a harder time accessing support.
The result is a hostile educational environment for LGBTQ+ students in the state’s public schools, the complaints allege.
“What we are seeing is increased surveillance of all students,” Craig White, the director of the Supportive Schools Program at the Campaign for Southern Equality, told WRAL News. “Not just LGBTQ students, the names that they use the pronouns that they use the library materials that they're using… We are seeing students that are afraid to talk to teachers and counselors and social workers, because they don't know how much of that private conversation is going to be shared, not just with their parents, but with other teachers, even with their peers.”
In a statement to WRAL News, state Superintendent Catherine Truitt didn't respond to specific allegations in the complaint.
She said the parents’ law provides transparency. “Parents, not the state, are ultimately responsible for raising their children,” she said. “The ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’ ensures that parents remain aware of major health-related matters impacting their child’s growth and development.”
Sen. Amy Galey, a primary sponsor of the law, echoed Truitt’s comments.
“When a child requests that state employees hide essential information from the parents, a web of lies grows,” Galey said in a statement to WRAL News. “The school must not lie to parents about essential facts regarding students’ mental health. Parents are better suited to help their children than state employees, who only know the information that the child has given and not the full family picture.”
Opponents of the law argue that some parents may respond in negative or abusive ways upon learning their child is transgender, including the worst-case scenario.
Galey said that if an educator fears abuse in the child’s home, they are obligated to report it to social services.
Reactions to the law
Two sections of the parents' law are the most controversial. The first: A section that requires schools to notify parents if their child asks school personnel to refer to them using a different name or pronoun. The second: A section that prohibits instruction on gender identity, sexual activity or sexuality to students in kindergarten through fourth grade.
Transgender or nonbinary students — whose gender identity doesn’t match the sex they were assigned at birth — may ask to go by a different name or pronoun. But students who merely wish to go by a nickname — such as “Jon” instead of “Jonathan” — also fall under the law, which states that notification is required for “any changes in name,” according to attorneys advising local school boards.
Interpretations of the law by schools and educators across the state have frustrated supporters and opponents of the law.
The Campaign for Southern Equality’s complaint argues that the restriction on certain content below fifth grade has resulted in books with LGBTQ+ characters being removed from school libraries, even if the book isn’t about the characters’ gender identity, sexual orientation or sexuality.
It’s also resulted in at least one school system eliminating puberty education before fifth grade, even though some girls hit puberty before then.
Before the transgender sports bill was passed last year, North Carolina allowed transgender athletes to play sports based on their gender identification through a lengthy waiver process.
As of this spring, 18 gender-waiver requests had been submitted to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association since that policy was put in place before the 2019-20 school year. One was incomplete. One was denied.
The other 16 were approved. Of those, 14 were biological females requesting to play on boys' teams. Just two were biological males requesting to play on girls' teams, Que Tucker, the commissioner of the NCHSAA, said in April. The requests don't mean those athletes tried out for the team or made the team.
The transgender sports law is House Bill 574. The parents' law is Senate Bill 49.
