Community discusses impact of 2023 laws affecting LGBTQ+ youth

In August 2023, Wren Motley, a sophomore at Longleaf School of the Arts in Raleigh, was looking into options for gender-affirming care, including top surgery. Around that time, the North Carolina General Assembly passed House Bill 808, which prevents health care providers from giving minors gender-affirming care such as puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries. 

For Motley, this was demotivating. 

“Some of the few things that I can actually change about myself to make me feel more comfortable in my body are being taken away,” they said. 

Also in August 2023, the General Assembly passed two other laws, restricting the discussion of gender identity in school with Senate Bill 49  and banning transgender youth from participating in women’s sports with House Bill 574.  Although Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed all three bills, the General Assembly's Republican supermajority overrode the vetoes.

Over a year later, transgender and nonbinary students, parents and advocates across North Carolina say youth and their families are feeling the impacts of the laws. 

During the 2023 legislative session, Republican lawmakers who supported the bills emphasized they were meant to protect children and parents' rights. Lou Jent, a nonbinary parent of a nonbinary child who lives in Durham, said all three laws take rights and choices away from transgender youth and their families. 

Artie Hartsell, director of organizing at the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, said the restriction of hormone blockers is particularly harmful to minors starting puberty.

Since the medications put a pause on the effects of puberty, Hartsell said the blockers allow transgender youth more time to figure out their identity before going through permanent developmental changes.

S.B. 49, known as the Parents' Bill of Rights, requires schools to notify parents if a student asks to use a different name or pronoun, which Hartsell said can be a safety concern if the student is not out to their parents. They also said the laws impact student-teacher relations by driving students away from trusted adults. 

“This is detrimental to students if they want to use the name or pronoun in school that feels the most authentic to who they are,” they said. 

The bill also restricts discussion about gender identity and sexuality in kindergarten through fourth grade. Hartsell said this erasure negatively impacts students as they learn how the world works.

“Seeing themselves in books in their libraries and having their names be spoken and on their documents at school are all affirming techniques that we can use to support literally less than 1 percent of our children,” Jent said. “But even though it's less than 1 percent of our children, they are sacred and deserve just as much care, respect and dignity as any child that is in our school system, our neighborhood or our churches.”

H.B. 574, the Fairness in Women's Sports Act, prevents transgender females from participating in sports inconsistent with their assigned sex at birth. Hartsell said these laws exclude transgender students and embolden anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and action.

“We know bullying can cause problems for a child who is bullied and has a negative impact on mental health,” they said. “But now, you have the media debating your existence, your state legislature determining you don't have rights and the federal government using its power to attack your welfare. This amounts to a very large adult institution using their scope of power to target a very small numerical minority population.” 

Hartsell said this has a detrimental impact on youth who are in the developmental stages of their lives and, therefore, more vulnerable to attacks on their personhood. 

According to a 2024 study by The Trevor Project, suicide attempts by transgender and nonbinary youth have risen up to 72 percent in states that have enacted anti-transgender legislation. 

Escher Hutton, a transgender student at UNC, said anti-trans actions by those in power have given people space to express hateful views. They said this has negatively impacted both their own and others' mental health, causing increased anxiety about the future. 

Hutton said they have been coping with this stress by engaging with others who are supportive and also want to fight to make change. 

“You worry about yourself,” Hutton said. “You worry about your future. You worry about what kind of future your friends are going to have. But you also worry about and have empathy for the people who are like you, only a few years younger. You're worried about the kids who are impacted by these laws and what standard that sets for them as they become adults. It takes a toll on you.” 

Jent said they find joy in fighting for social justice alongside other members of transgender and nonbinary communities.

“I think this is a roadblock, but I think that community and standing together and supporting one another is going to get us through this,” Motley said.

@sarahhclements

@DTHCityState | city@dailytarheel.com