Raleigh – The North Carolina State House and State Senate overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act on Aug. 16, which would limit athletes to playing sports based on their sex at birth from middle school up.
The state house overrode the veto 74-45, with Democrats Garland Pierce (Hoke) and and Michael Wray (Gaston) joining 72 Republican representatives, and the state senate overrode the veto 27-18 on a party line vote. Both the state house and senate have veto-proof Republican majorities.
Rep. Karl Gillespie (R-Franklin) is one of the sponsors of the house version of the bill, HB 574. Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Franklin) is one of the primary sponsors of the senate version of the bill, SB 631.The bill states that teams will be designated as male, female or co-ed, with biological males only allowed to compete with biological females if there’s no female team in the sport, with an exception made for wrestling.
Hiwassee Dam 2023 alumna Payton McNabb testified in favor of the bill when it was introduced back in April, and was on hand for the veto override. Last September, McNabb was injured by a transgender female during a volleyball match against Highlands. The Cherokee County Board of Education later voted that county teams would not play
their remaining matches against Highlands on Sept. 21, saying it was a “safety issue.”
In a statement read in April, McNabb said she suffered a concussion and neck injury, as well as impaired vision, partial paralysis on her right side, “constant” headaches, anxiety and depression.
“Allowing biological males to compete against biological females is dangerous,” McNabb said in April. “I may be the first to come before you with an injury, but if this doesn’t pass, I won’t be the last.”
The bill veto was one of three overridden by the legislature that day. One restricted gender-affirming care for minors, while another would require public school teachers to alert a parent before they call a student by a different name or pronoun and ban instruction about gender identity and sexuality in kindergarten through fourth grade.