“If we want to preserve the proud heritage of North Carolina, it is time for our leadership to consider a substantial and immediate repeal of HB 2.”
–North Carolina State Sen. Tamara Barringer (R-Cary), the first Republican to call for the repeal of the state’s anti-LGBT HB 2 law, which restricts transgender people’s access to restrooms and repeals local LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances.
Although Barringer has called for repeal of the law, she insists she still doesn’t want biological males to use women’s locker rooms or bathrooms.
“Whenever legislative bodies rush to judgment on important public policy decisions, there are unintended consequences,” Barringer said in an emailed statement to The News & Observer. “With the most recent announcements impacting our state, there are simply too many examples of very sad and unfortunate ramifications and unintended effects of HB 2.”
“I did not realize the consequences of this bill, that it would have worldwide consequences, and they just keep piling up,” Barringer told WRAL. “So, at this point, I’m willing to stand up and say, ‘Let’s put the brakes on it. Let’s get together and find a common solution that we call can live with and move forward.”
Barringer represents one of the more competitive districts in the state senate, and faces a strong challenge in November from Wake County school board member Susan Evans. A spokesman for Evans issued a statement saying her last-minute conversion won’t help Barringer save her seat.
“When she voted for HB 2 in March, Sen. Barringer knew what she was doing,” said Evans campaign spokesman Dustin Ingalls. “She knew the legal and economic consequences her constituents would experience. Only now that she’s in danger of losing her seat does she waffle.
“Her latest change of mind is certainly not a change of heart. It’s a purely political move designed to make voters forget that she is responsible for the loss of jobs and millions of dollars in economic investment in her district.”
Donald Trump has signed an executive order paving the way for banning transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military by effectively declaring them unfit for service.
The president's order declares that the Armed Forces have been besieged by “radical gender ideology” under the past presidential administration to “appease activists unconcerned with the requirements of military service like physical and mental health, selflessness, and unit cohesion.”
The order states that “longstanding Department of Defense policy provides that it is the policy of the DoD to ensure that service members are ‘ree of medical conditions or physical defects that may reasonably be expected to require excessive time lost from duty for necessary treatment or hospitalization.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have adopted a new rules package that allows a proposed transgender sports ban to be fast-tracked and voted on without a chance to offer amendments.
Under the text of the rules package, 12 bills that Republican lawmakers have long prioritized -- primarily having to do with immigration, anti-abortion measures, and fracking -- are to be voted upon "as read."
Among those is a measure to "amend the Education Amendments of 1972 to provide that for purposes of determining compliance with Title IX of such Act in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth."
Disney has removed a transgender storyline from Win or Lose, a series about a co-ed middle school softball team called the Pickles.
The eight-episode Pixar series, premiering February 19, 2025, on Disney+, will follow the experiences of different Pickles teammates and their friends. A 14-year-old character who would have identified as trans in the original version will remain in the show, but the lines of dialogue referencing gender identity have been excised.
The decision to cut the references was made months ago, aligning with a rightward political shift in which Americans are becoming less supportive of transgender visibility.
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