Sunday marked three years since former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, now a Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate, vetoed legislation barring male athletes from girls’ sports, strengthening parents’ authority over their children’s education, and prohibiting gender-transition procedures for minors.
Cooper vetoed the three Republican-backed measures on July 5, 2023, describing the efforts as “scheming for the next election.”
The vetoes contrast with the moderate, folksy image Cooper has sought to project during his Senate campaign, which he launched with a video emphasizing his image as a humble, small-town lawyer with Sunday school roots, his focus on middle-class families, and his desire to “serve the people” of North Carolina.
One of the measures, House Bill 574, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, prohibited biological males from competing in girls’ sports at North Carolina middle schools, high schools, and colleges.
Cooper argued that the bill was “neither fair nor needed” and accused politicians of “inflaming the political culture wars by making broad, uninformed decisions about an extremely small number of vulnerable children.”
He also said Republican governors in other states had vetoed similar bills because they hurt their states’ “reputation and economy.”
The Republican-led General Assembly later overrode Cooper’s veto, making the bill law.
Payton McNabb, a North Carolina athlete and Women’s Forum ambassador, criticized Cooper’s decision after she was injured during a high school volleyball game when a spike from a biological male competing on a girls’ team struck her in the head.
McNabb was knocked unconscious and suffered a concussion, vision problems, partial paralysis on her right side, headaches, anxiety, and depression. She continues to experience effects from the injury.
She testified in favor of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act before the General Assembly.
“Then-Gov. Cooper bent his knee to far-left activists who don’t represent North Carolina’s values,” McNabb wrote in an op-ed. “He rejected the safety and dignity of women who have dedicated themselves to their sports and he would do so again if elected to the U.S. Senate.”
“Career politicians like Cooper would rather make excuses than face reality,” she continued. “They would rather protect ideology than defend women’s rights. And in doing so, they abandon the very athletes they claim to support.”
Cooper has also avoided answering questions about his transgender policy record. He ran away when asked why he supported requiring female athletes to compete against biological males and declined to answer when asked how many genders there are.
He has also dedicated a “Transgender Day of Remembrance” and declined to answer questions about his broader transgender policy record.
A second measure Cooper vetoed, Senate Bill 49, established a Parents’ Bill of Rights.
The legislation affirmed that parents have the right to consent to or withhold consent from their children’s participation in reproductive health and safety education programs. It also required educators to notify parents if a student used a different name or pronouns in the classroom.
Cooper acknowledged that parents are “the most essential educators for their children” but argued that the legislation would “scare teachers into silence by injecting fear and uncertainty into classrooms.”
He referred to the measure as a “Don’t Say Gay” bill and claimed it would hamper the “important and sometimes lifesaving role of educators as trusted advisers when students have nowhere else to turn.”
Cooper vetoed Senate Bill 49, the Parents’ Bill of Rights, but the legislature later overrode his veto.
The third measure Cooper vetoed, House Bill 808, prohibited medical professionals from performing surgical gender transition procedures on minors or prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to them, while allowing exceptions for minors with medically verifiable disorders of sex development. Cooper argued that “A doctor’s office is no place for politicians” and said parents and medical professionals should continue making decisions about gender-related care for children.
He also said ordering doctors to stop following approved medical protocols would establish a “troubling precedent” and be dangerous for vulnerable young people and their mental health. The Republican-led General Assembly later overrode his veto by votes of 73-46 in the House and 27-18 in the Senate, making North Carolina the 22nd state to enact restrictions on gender-transition procedures for minors.
Cooper’s opposition to bathroom restrictions based on a person’s birth certificate dates back to his 2016 campaign for governor, when he opposed House Bill 2, which required individuals to use bathrooms corresponding with the gender on their birth certificates. Cooper called the law “one of the most discriminatory laws in the country,” described it as “a stain” on North Carolina’s reputation, and said he “could not tolerate” it remaining law. During that campaign, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory released an advertisement featuring Greensboro resident Gina Little, who said she had been molested as a child and objected to policies requiring students to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers with members of the opposite sex. A Civitas poll cited at the time found that 61 percent of North Carolina voters supported keeping transgender men out of women’s facilities until they underwent sex-change surgery, while 29 percent opposed that position.
Cooper’s record on other issues has also drawn scrutiny during his Senate campaign. In a September 2024 Bloomberg interview, Cooper declared, “You can’t compromise on women’s right to choose,” and opposed the suggestion of a 15- or 16-week abortion compromise, arguing that complicated pregnancies should be handled by women and their doctors rather than through “hard and fast rules.” He also vetoed a 2023 bill targeting DEI-related practices and prohibiting state agencies, including public universities, from asking employees or prospective hires to state their views or take action regarding contemporary political or social issues. The North Carolina Senate later overrode his veto. The NRSC has highlighted that decision and his daughter Hillary Cooper’s private-sector work focused on DEI and ESG initiatives, while separately accusing him of refusing to condemn “extreme, anti-Israel Democrats.”
Read the full article here
