Donald Trump closed out his 2024 presidential campaign with a searing condemnation of trans rights: “Kamala Harris is for they/them, President Trump is for you.”
Nearly six months into his second term, North Carolina Republicans have heeded his call, delivering blistering speeches on the floor of the General Assembly in support of rigid definitions of biological sex and passing a slew of measures aimed at curtailing trans rights, hoping to capitalize on what they believe is a winning issue among North Carolinians.
It’s a far cry from 2016, when months into Trump’s first successful campaign for the office, the state legislature’s passage of House Bill 2, the “Bathroom Bill,” sent billions of dollars fleeing from the state. As culture wars escalate across the U.S., laws clamping down on trans rights have entered the mainstream, with some Democrats acceding to or even supporting anti-trans bills from the other side of the aisle.
Here’s how North Carolina politicians have handled anti-trans legislation in 2025 — from Republican leadership seeing an opportunity to win on the issue to Democrats, including Governor Josh Stein, relenting in response to at least some of those efforts.
Stein splits the difference on anti-trans bills
In contrast to former Governor Roy Cooper, who emphasized public stands in defense of trans rights after winning office in the wake of the backlash to HB 2, Stein has had little to say on trans issues in seven months in office.
He has also signaled some willingness to allow conservative bills on trans issues to proceed. On July 3, he signed Senate Bill 442, enacting a piece of legislation that bars abuse or neglect findings on the basis of a parent or caregiver who “raises a juvenile consistent with the juvenile’s biological sex.”
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein signs a bill into law at the governor’s mansion on June 13, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)That signing garnered rare praise for Stein from the NC Values Coalition, a religious right advocacy group. The group’s executive director, Tami Fitzgerald, lauded the governor for helping parents “protect their children from harmful gender transition interventions.”
“We are thankful that today Governor Stein signed SB 442 into law, ensuring that our state upholds the fundamental truth that children belong to their parents, not the government,” said Fitzgerald. “Now that Governor Stein signed SB 442 into law, North Carolina parents can rest easy knowing that they can exercise their parental rights without fear of the government taking their child away.”
The signing puts Stein out of step with most of his party — in its final vote in each chamber, no Democrats in the Senate backed the bill, and just nine supported it in the House. Unlike some other bills he took action on, Stein did not provide a written explanation for his decision, but a spokesperson wrote in a statement that the bill will not change how North Carolina punishes cases of abuse.
“Parents have the right to raise their kids how they think is best for them, but, of course, child abuse will never be tolerated,” the spokesperson wrote Tuesday. “The Governor remains confident that DHHS and county DSS offices will continue to find the best placements for children.”
North Carolina ACLU policy counsel Reighlah Collins said she was “disappointed but not necessarily surprised” that Stein signed the bill, calling it “bad messaging” but whose impact will be “hopefully, pretty small.”
“The parents in North Carolina are not being criminally charged or losing custody of their children because they refuse to support their child’s gender identity. Like, it’s just not something that’s happening in North Carolina,” Collins said. “It’s all part of this broader strategy to push trans people out of public and civil life by just singling them out in all of these respects.”
Also on July 3, Stein vetoed House Bill 805 — a separate bill that was amended at a late stage to include measures exclusively recognizing male and female sexes under state law, blocking state funds for gender-affirming care, and restricting changes of sex designation on birth certificates — explaining in a statement that Republicans are “stoking culture wars that further divide us.”
As Governor, Roy Cooper emphasized public stands on trans rights, beginning with his ascension to the office in the wake of backlash to the “Bathroom Bill.” (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)“These mean-spirited bills would marginalize vulnerable people and also undermine the quality of public services and public education. Therefore, I am vetoing them,” Stein said. “I stand ready to work with the legislature when it gets serious about protecting people and addressing North Carolinians’ pressing concerns.”
Beyond alluding to culture wars, the veto statement did not explicitly reference trans North Carolinians or gender-affirming care, a break from Cooper’s approach to these issues. In a 2023 veto on another bill seeking to block access to medical transitions, Cooper said “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.”
A more subdued approach has not spared Stein from condemnation from the right. House Speaker Destin Hall posted on X that Stein “sided with radical activists over the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians” in the wake of his veto. Fitzgerald, the NC Values Coalition executive director, blasted Stein for “appeasing the radical block of his party that wants to force its sexual agenda on all of us” and called him “out of step with the values of the majority of North Carolinians.”
Top Republican lawmakers see opportunity to go on the offensive
If the Governor has spoken little on trans issues, Republicans in the General Assembly have seized every opportunity to drive a wedge in his coalition on anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, explicitly following Trump’s lead in doing so.
North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) presides over session on June 25, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)“Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill CRUSHES woke insanity,” Hall wrote in a July 14 post on X. “HB 805 does the same by affirming biological truth. Stein vetoed, but the NC House will DELIVER.”
North Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, Hall’s counterpart, authored a similar post on July 2, alleging that Democrats like Stein are “actively working against women by refusing to simply acknowledge there are two sexes — male and female.”
Even amid growing discontent with the Trump administration over economic and immigration issues, the Republican emphasis on anti-trans legislation suggests they still view the issue as a political winner. Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University, said Republicans see the potential for political benefit in passing such bills.
“I think there is a sense from the Republican Party that they are closer to the average North Carolinian on these issues than the Democrats are,” Cooper said. “I think they believe that politically, the bathroom-related legislation is a political loser, and that in general, things related to children and minors are political winners.”
Growing anti-trans sentiment can be found in recent polling. An April survey of registered North Carolina voters by Meredith College shows that even on the issue of restricting bathroom use, considered beyond the pale a decade ago, a majority support proposals that roll back trans rights.
Asked about restricting trans North Carolinians to only using public bathrooms corresponding to their assigned sex at birth, 57% of surveyed voters voiced support. And 56% said they would support making it impossible for sex markers to be changed on an individual’s birth certificate, a more restrictive proposal than the one Stein vetoed.
David McLennan, the director of the Meredith Poll, attributed this shift to Trump’s rhetoric. “In less than a decade, the issue of restricting transgender rights has become popular among North Carolinians,” he said in a statement. “This clearly reflects the concerted efforts of national Republicans, including President Trump, to demonize this group.”
Among the most restrictive measures proposed on trans issues this session was Senate Bill 516, in effect a resurrection and expansion of HB 2. The proposal would have barred trans people from single-sex bathrooms, changing facilities, and sleeping quarters at state-funded facilities that correspond to their gender identity.
North Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), pictured at Stein’s State of the State address, said he did not see a “runway exists” for the bathrooms and public facilities bill this term. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)After its first reading in the Senate, however, that bill died in the chamber’s powerful Rules Committee, never receiving a hearing before the legislature’s crossover deadline. In a May statement to the Raleigh News & Observer, Berger said while he views HB 2 as an inapt comparison for the new proposal, he did not “see at this point the runway exists for that bill to be passed by the Senate” ahead of the crossover deadline.
That bill also contained the other measure polled by Meredith, a bar on any modifications to sex designation on birth certificates. While the bill did not progress in time for its passage this legislative session, elements of it made into HB 805, the legislation vetoed by Stein. A set of definitions of biological sex and related terms added shortly before the bill’s passage closely mirror those found in the Senate proposal, and a requirement that the original birth certificate must be attached to a modified version evinces a similar aim to the ban on sex marker changes.
It also contained a proposal centered on expanding potential liability for providers of gender affirming care — extending the statute of limitations for malpractice lawsuits involving gender transitions to 10 years and removing a ceiling on damages for such claims. That language was borrowed from House Bill 606, which has yet to see a vote in the Senate.
Veto fight looms as some Democrats defect
Whether Republicans’ most substantive piece of anti-trans legislation becomes law depends on whether any Democrats are willing to help HB 805 overcome Stein’s veto.
So far, the General Assembly’s Republican majority have yet to overturn any of Stein’s vetoes, despite the governor issuing 14 so far this year. Because they are one vote shy of a supermajority in the House, Republicans need to peel off at least one Democrat for a veto override, assuming full attendance.
Rep. Dante Pittman (D-Wilson) was the lone Democrat to support HB 805 in the House. (Photo courtesy of NCGA)That would theoretically be attainable for HB 805, but by the slimmest margin. Only a single Democrat in the House opted to support the bill, Rep. Dante Pittman (D-Wilson). According to Chris Cooper, the WCU political scientist, that does not necessarily mean he would back an override effort.
“It’s a pretty significant signal anytime you’re going to go against the Governor who’s a member of your own party,” Cooper said. “I don’t think any legislator enters into that lightly because it could mean that their legislation is less likely to get through later.”
He cautioned that there’s no guarantee that everyone holds their previous vote, meaning it is possible that another Democrat delivers the vote needed to overcome the override. In the House vote on the Parents Protection Act, which Stein declined to veto, eight other Democrats joined Pittman in voting to pass the bill, suggesting a larger contingent of members of the party with some level of willingness to side with Republicans on LGBTQ+ issues.
The state party itself has rebuked anti-trans legislation introduced this term. In a Facebook post in March, the official North Carolina Democratic Party page decried any effort to revive HB2 or similar legislation. “Women do not need Republicans to attack the basic human rights of our transgender community,” the post reads.
North Carolina Sen. Sydney Batch (D-Wake), the Democratic caucus leader, speaks during a press conference at Moore Square Magnet Middle School in Raleigh on April 7, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)Similarly, in a recent interview with NC Newsline for the radio show/podcast News & Views, Senate Democratic leader Sydney Batch was scathing in her assessment of anti-trans legislation. “You know, I don’t understand why Republicans are so obsessed with genitalia.” she said. “Literally, when I’m talking to my constituents, you know, it doesn’t come up. What doesn’t come up is, you know, gender affirming care. What comes up is, ‘hey, you know what, I’ve had a permanent sub in my child’s classroom for the last year, who doesn’t actually know how to teach math.'”
Regardless of the veto fight’s outcome, more legislation restricting trans rights will likely follow so long as public opinion remains on the side of Republicans on the issue. “It’s the culture war issue that’s going to define this term of the General Assembly,” Cooper said.
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