Let Vetoes Blossom!

 

Governor Roy Cooper vetoed three hateful, unnecessary, intrusive, and obnoxious laws, which of course Berger/Moore will marshal their troops to override. All three target queer people because their small numbers in our population mean they're not strong enough to fight back, and the Republicans love weak victims.

H808, perhaps the most intrusive overreach of the session, puts the legislature between trans children, their parents, and medical experts. There's gathering pushback from families who support their kids, who know their kids better than Republican members of the General Assembly do, like this article currently in the News and Observer: "This 12-year-old wants to continue gender-affirming care. NC lawmakers are trying to stop it."

Add the story being told by a Democratic member of the House, John Autry, about his own granddaughter Savannah, recounted for Cardinal and Pine. The pain felt by the Autry family because of the insertion of state law into private family matters is powerful stuff. Gov. Cooper said in his veto message, "A doctor’s office is no place for politicians, and North Carolina should continue to let parents and medical professionals make decisions about the best way to offer gender care for their children."

Gov. Cooper also vetoed S49, a.k.a. the "Don't Say Gay" law, saying, “The rights of parents are well established in state law, so instead of burdening schools with their political culture wars, legislators should help them with better teacher pay and more investments in students.”

Finally, Cooper also vetoed H574, which Republicans called the "Fairness in Women's Sports Act," and which sets out to ban trans athletes from participating in school sports. Gov. Cooper called the legislation's policies "broad, uninformed decisions about an extremely small number of vulnerable children that are already handled by a robust system that relies on parents, schools and sports organizations."

Proud of the governor for vetoing all three. Ashamed of the Republicans in the General Assembly for deciding that LGBTQ kids are the greatest threats to what's left of our civic pact.