A group of more than 20 NC State students Wednesday attended an information session about the effects of House Bill 2, hosted by the Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity in conjunction with the NC State GLBT Center.
The information session focused on the basic definitions of what it means to be transgender, the implications of HB2 for transgender and queer people in North Carolina, the lawsuits currently in court surrounding the legislation and the economic impacts of the bill.
Students were also given the chance to hear from and talk to Natalie Nguyen, assistant director of the GLBT Center and a trans person.
HB2, which Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law on March 23 following a special session of the NC General Assembly, requires people to use the restroom that corresponds to their sex as it is listed on their birth certificate regardless of their self-identification. The bill also lifts protections against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. Additionally, HB2 prevents cities and localities from passing future non-discrimination legislation.
The bill is making waves nationally and internationally, not just due to the content of the bill but also because of the way in which it was passed. The majority-Republican General Assembly called a special session, which cost an extra $42,000 of taxpayer funds, to draft legislation that would stop a non-discrimination ordinance from going into effect in Charlotte.
The bill was approved by the House and Senate and signed by the governor in fewer than 12 hours.
“It’s like trying to kill an ant with a hammer,” said Yerson Padilla, a junior in women’s and gender studies and a member of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc.
Bianca Olivares, a junior studying social work who was in attendance, asked the speakers where intersex people fit into this bill, which Nguyen said is one of the many oversights of the bill.
“It’s not even included at all,” Nguyen said.
Intersex are people born with genitalia that does not match their chromosomes. Nguyen said in the nine years they have worked on these issues, they have only met two people who openly identified as intersex and they said they never would have known because “I am not their doctor, and I’m not dating them.”
“We’re under the assumption that everyone who wrote this bill doesn’t even know what intersex is,” Nguyen said.
UNC President Margaret Spellings has frequently been pressed on her stance on LGBT rights and more recently on HB2. In a speech following her appointment, Spellings used the phrase “those lifestyles” in reference to LGBT people.
In an email after HB2 passed, Spellings said UNC would follow the law but would maintain its stance as an all-inclusive institution, noting that the bill does not include any details on how it would be enforced.
Spellings said the UNC System would not be changing its bathroom signs.
“We already have a problem with representation, and I feel like this just creates a bigger divide with students,” Padilla said. “Not having inclusive bathrooms — even something so small as that — shows that not everybody is welcome and that’s a problem.”
Olivares said that she found the information session informative and convenient being on campus.
“[My exposure] has been basically what I see on the news and what students and transgender responses have been,” Olivares said. “I don’t personally identify as transgender so it’s harder for me to see, but this really has made me connect more with the transgender community.”
Prior to the event, Olivares said she didn’t realize she was privileged to not have the experience of being unsure of how to present her gender to the world.
“I don’t think about it much. When Natalie [Nguyen] pointed that out I was like, ‘Wow, I really don’t’, I guess that’s a privilege I have,” Olivares said. “I guess it’s just something you don’t think about, and it made me realize that it’s what other people go through. It’s eye-opening.”
