(The Center Square) – Gender identity claims won’t cost parents custody of their children, according to a bill still alive and moving on Tuesday from Judiciary 2 Committee.
Parents Protection Act, also known as House Bill 560, is headed to the Rules Committee and next could get a full floor vote. The proposal has a companion in Senate Bill 442. Crossover day is Thursday.
In his presentation, Rep. Donnie Loftis, R-Gaston, recalled parents in Indiana who lost custody of a child “simply because they could not, in good conscience affirm a gender transition that violated their deeply held Catholic beliefs.”
A father in California lost custody of his 5-year-old son, was issued a restraining order and blocked from accessing his child’s medical records because he disagreed with his girlfriend over his child’s gender, Loftis said.
Other parents have been denied the opportunity to adopt children because they would not commit to supporting transitions for future foster children, the legislator said.
“These are not isolated cases,” said Loftis.
Although North Carolina has not experienced similar cases, “We’re making sure it won’t happen,” Loftis told the committee. “It makes clear that no parent will be labelled abusive or unfit simply for believing that boys are boys and girls are girls.”
This proposal would make sure parents can’t be accused of abuse or neglect for raising their child according to birth sex or lose custody of their children if there is disagreement of their sex when born and a potential gender identity claim. Medical decisions are the parents’ fundamental rights, according to the bill. Also, potential adoptions or foster care would not be tied to prospective parents having to affirm gender identity.
“It does not allow parents to abuse their child and try to defend their abuse by saying they disagreed with their child’s feeling,” said Loftis. “It simply assures that the government can’t redefine child abuse to mean refusing to affirm gender ideology.”
Rep. Deb Butler, D-Hanover, expressed concern over youth in foster care being placed in a home with hostile parents.
“To place them in a home with the knowledge that the family is not supportive or thoughtful about that issue is doing further damage to that child,” Butler said. “We are running afoul of the gold standard which is, ‘What is in the best interest of the child?’”
Kyle Warren Love of Caswell County urged legislators to oppose the bill.
“Children should be nurtured, children should be cared for, children should be supported to be exactly who they are,” he said.
Janssen White, director of legislative affairs for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, said the agency has “significant concerns” about the bill. It undermines the county departments of Social Services and the courts’ ability to “consider all necessary information” when determining an appropriate placement for children.
