How to stop NC Republicans from bullying transgender youth? Hit them where it counts.

We’re not certain why North Carolina Republicans want to bully transgender children, but we have a pretty good idea.

The issue of gender identity is a political winner, some GOP lawmakers believe. It shows the conservative base back home that you’re representing their values. It also gives those constituents something to fear — a common GOP tactic with cultural issues.

And so, as with HB2 five years ago, N.C. Republicans are launching a newly repugnant attempt to stigmatize and discriminate against vulnerable members of the LGBTQ community. Senate Bill 514, filed earlier this month, would prohibit transgender people under the age of 21 from receiving medical care related to gender transition, and it would legally protect the cruel and discredited practice of conversion therapy to “cure” those in the LGBTQ community.

SB 514 also has the particularly odious provision of requiring teachers to report in writing to a student’s parents if they’ve “exhibited symptoms of gender dysphoria, gender nonconformity, or otherwise demonstrates a desire to be treated in a manner incongruent with the minor’s sex.” That not only stigmatizes behavior but casts an astoundingly vague net that could lead to students being targeted by teachers and classmates who would have the law behind their bullying.

Similar bills are being introduced across the country, including Arkansas, where Republican lawmakers overturned the veto of Republican Gov. Asa Hutchison, who called his state’s transgender legislation “overreach.” He’s right. The state shouldn’t be intruding on what already is a fraught time for transgender children and their families.

N.C. Republicans also have joined other states in introducing a bill that forbids transgender women from competing against other women at colleges and high schools. Such bills, however, are being met with a backlash that should be familiar to North Carolinians. On Monday, the NCAA threatened to pull events from states that discriminated against LGBTQ athletes, saying in a statement: “When determining where championships are held, NCAA policy directs that only locations where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination should be selected.”

That might be enough to discourage N.C. lawmakers from moving forward with a bill that targets athletes, but it’s unlikely to dissuade Republicans who want send a message with SB 514, a bill that probably won’t become law. Still, corporations in North Carolina can assert their values and make a statement about lawmakers who think discrimination is something worth voting for. Those corporations can and should declare that no campaign dollars will go to NC public officials who vote to target members of the LGBTQ community, regardless of whether such legislation passes.

Such statements have become more common, with corporations halting contributions to Republicans who supported the Jan. 6 insurrection and condemning the Georgia’s restrictive voting law. The most significant statement thus far: Major League Baseball pulling the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta — the kind of move that can set off a chain reaction of corporate and event departures, as North Carolina knows well from HB2.

It remains to be seen what kind of staying power such stances have, but Republicans are certainly uncomfortable with the notion. “From election law to environmentalism to radical social agendas to the Second Amendment, parts of the private sector keep dabbling in behaving like a woke parallel government,” Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement this month. “Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order.”

Corporations should hold their ground, as should institutions that decide they don’t want to hold events in states that disenfranchise and discriminate against their citizens. Republicans have long argued that corporations deserve more of a say in elections via permissive campaign finance rules. It’s time for those in North Carolina to put real values behind their voices.

This story was originally published April 13, 2021 at 2:21 PM.