North Carolina Disguises Anti-Trans Bill as a Women’s Rights Bill

The NC H 358 Save Women’s Sports Act would prohibit trans women from playing on girls or women’s teams. This bill would base sports team participation on genitals and genetics as described at birth. Sex is dependent on a number of biological characteristics including genitalia, hormones, internal anatomy, and chromosomes. Unless a newborn has a medical need for more thorough testing, most sex determination is based on what genitalia the doctors can see once the baby is born. Many intersex people only found out they were intersex once they hit puberty. Some claim that intersex is such a rare occasion that it’s irrelevant, but someone being intersex is as common as someone having red hair. This shows that visual genitalia isn’t a valid measure of sex for everyone.

This bill also reinforces systemic transphobia by providing legal protection to schools against any adverse action that opposes this discrimination. NC H 358 also provides legal protection to anyone who reports a violation of this bill and allows females who have been “harmed” from a trans man being on their team to take legal action.

Write to your representatives today and tell them not to support H 358.