By Jaelyn Miller, Emancipate NC Attorney and Community Organizer
Elizabeth Simpson, Strategic Director & Attorney at Emancipate NC and the ACLU of NC filed a lawsuit to challenge a provision of House Bill 805. The bill, which targets trans North Carolinians and enforces new classroom censorship policies, was passed into law by the North Carolina General Assembly despite Gov. Stein’s veto last summer and recently went into full effect.
The lawsuit specifically challenges Section 3 of HB 805, which bans the usage of state funds to provide gender-affirming care, including “surgical gender transition procedures and cross-sex hormones” for people who are incarcerated in North Carolina prisons or otherwise in the custody of the Department of Adult Corrections. This provision creates a de facto ban on gender-affirming care for those who are incarcerated, as they cannot access health care services unless the state provides them. Section 3 went into effect immediately upon the passage of the bill on July 29.
“As long as our laws codify needless suffering for incarcerated people, our society won’t be able to recognize any human pain as truly valid and real,” said Simpson.