LGBTQ and Allied Groups,
Sign on to oppose anti-LGBTQ discrimination!
Join an open letter from LGBTQ and allied organizations to oppose anti-LGBTQ legislation like SB514 and SB515. Add your name and share with other advocates in North Carolina. Learn more about these bills here.
Open Letter from North Carolina LGBTQ and Allied Organizations:
As organizations who represent LGBTQ+ North Carolinians or strongly support dignity and equality for LGBTQ+ North Carolinians, we urge the NC General Assembly to reject any legislation targeting LGBTQ people for discrimination. We specifically are concerned about - and oppose – SB358, SB514, and SB515.
HB358 directly attacks transgender youth in schools who seek to participate in sports by requiring students on middle, high school, and intercollegiate sport teams to participate in a team aligned with the sex assigned at birth.
SB514 would prohibit transgender young people from receiving any trans-affirming care and penalize medical professionals who provide transition-related care. It also essentially requires public employees – such as teachers, administrators, or counselors – to “out” transgender students to their parents, potentially before they are ready to share. And it protects the dangerous practice of anti-LGBTQ “conversion therapy,” the debunked practice of attempting to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
SB515, would allow any medical provider – defined so broadly to reach all health care entities as well as individual staff at hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, or pharmacies – to refuse to provide any service or treatment anything they object to on the basis of conscience, including even providing information or referrals. It in effect establishes a broad and dangerous “license to discriminate” against vulnerable communities, including LGBTQ people, pregnant people, or people of differing faith backgrounds.
We strongly oppose these bills and will never stop working toward building a North Carolina where all people, including LGBTQ people, are treated with dignity and respect no matter where they live. For all of these reasons, we unite in opposition to the anti-transgender HB358 and the broadly concerning SB514 and SB515 and in support of LGBTQ-affirming care across North Carolina.