Commentary by Carl Hintz
The “cultural wars” have reared their ugly heads in North Carolina. As an enthusiast of cultural anthropology, this saddens me. Culture is a shared system of meaning, not something to have a “war” about. Rather than addressing the many real problems that our kids and students are facing, the North Carolina General Assembly voted to advance laws that harm trans youth. These laws would pressure schools to out trans youth to their parents, ban trans girls from “female” sports teams, and outlaw doctors from prescribing hormones to trans youth. Of particular concern are Senate Bill 49, House Bill 808, and House Bill 574.
One provision of Senate Bill 49 is that schools notify parents “prior to any changes in the name or pronoun used for a student in school records or by school personnel.” However, the NC State Board of Education Code of Ethics requires teachers to protect students “from conditions within the educator’s control that circumvent learning or are detrimental to the health and safety of students.” Outing a student when they are not yet ready could certainly harm the health and safety of that student. As a teacher, I say if I am fired for following the code of ethics, then so be it.
Some elected representatives seem hell-bent on targeting trans kids. Senate Bill 49 acknowledges parents have the right “to make health care decisions for his or her child.” However, House Bill 808 attempts to make it unlawful for a medical professional to “prescribe, provide, or dispense puberty-blocking drugs or cross-sex hormones to a minor.” Meanwhile, House Bill 574 specifies that sports teams must be “expressly designated by the biological sex of the team participants as one of the following: I. Males, men, or boys; II. Females, women, or girls; III. Co-ed or mixed” and bans trans girls from playing on “female” sports teams.
On June 14th the NC People’s Power Coalition held a press conference, a people’s lobby day, and a mass rally at the NC General Assembly. According to Reverend Lisa Garcia-Sampson, the executive director of the Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of North Carolina, priorities of the NC People’s Power Coalition include “investing in our children, funding healthcare, keeping bans off our bodies, defending our democracy, creating an economy for all, uprooting racism, and protecting our environment for future generations.”
At the press conference, State Representative John Autry said “This is about marginalizing a small group of children who don’t have a voice for themselves yet. And you’re attacking them and ostracizing them and making lives worse for them. You’re going to hurt more children than you’re helping. These children who are dealing with their gender identity, and trying to affirm themselves, they need love and acceptance. And whenever these kinds of bills are introduced by their government, the government that should be responsible for the safety and protection of all children seems to be having the opposite effect.” One of the representative’s grandchildren is trans.
Similar to how teachers may choose to resist Senate Bill 49, I hope that sports teams and athletic organizations will choose to resist House Bill 574. A historic example of sportsteams engaging in social noncooperation are the sports strikes in Norway from 1940-45 described by Gene Sharp in The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Two, The Methods of Nonviolent Action. Norwegian athletes and spectators refused to cooperate with or participate in sporting events involving the occupying Germans or the Norwegian fascist party. In 1940 the Norway Sports Association steering committee sent letters to its members describing the efforts by fascists to take control of their organization and rebuffed the efforts by choosing to dissolve. The general public participated in the sports strikes and in illegal independent sporting events which was a visible sign of resistance through the duration of the war and occupation (Sharp, 193).
If athletes, teachers, doctors, and the public stand together to resist anti-trans bills using strategies of nonviolent noncooperation, the state legislature may find itself dealing with more trouble than it reckoned with. The North Carolina People’s Power Coalition has been successful in escalating its actions. On July 1st NC People’s Power Coalition held a statewide day of action with events in Asheville, Butner, Cabarrus County, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Durham, Elizabeth City, Fayetteville, Goldsboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Rocky Mount, and Winston Salem. The events were endorsed by 99 different organizations according to ncpeoplespower.org.
A creative response in North Carolina to the sports ban would be to merge “boys” and “girls” teams to be co-ed teams. For co-ed teams, it is important to give both boys and girls (and nonbinary youth) equal play time on the field. For example, ultimate frisbee has a successful history as a coed sport. Traditionally if one team played four guys and three women, the other team would also play at least three women. The amount of running in frisbee is similar to that in basketball or soccer. The result of this convention is that there is an incentive for a team to have a more equal gender ratio. Coed teams should be inclusive to trans and nonbinary students and could have the additional benefit of combating sexist assumptions about athletic ability.
Instead of targeting trans kids, let’s shift the debate towards the very real needs of our students and our schools. My school has more than 2,200 students and yet we do not have a full time school nurse. Schools are struggling to staff classrooms with permanent teachers or even with temporary substitute teachers. On a question that stumped a student in a class that had had a series of substitute teachers for a whole semester, they wrote “I don’t know, maybe get us a teacher, not trying to be rude.” Students often have to work and help to take care of younger siblings. Some students face food insecurity and homelessness. All students are figuring out how to navigate a difficult world. While teachers often feel relief by the end of the school day, students often feel consternation as the list of canceled bus routes is announced.
Many students have mental health struggles. According to the National Vital Statistics System Mortality data from 2021 the leading causes of death among adolescents ages 15-19 are accidents, homicide, and suicide. The 2011-2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey from the CDC found that in 2021 nearly 70 percent of LGBQT youth felt “persistently sad and hopeless” as did 35 percent of heterosexual youth. Locking guns away is especially important to prevent suicide. The national suicide and crisis lifeline provides 24/7 free and confidential support for people in distress and can be reached by phone or text at 988.
We have big debates, even “culture wars”, when it comes to education. However, one of the wonderful things about public education is the system of local democratic control of schools by school boards. Unfortunately, many debates are focused on the concerns of adults and few on the experiences of students. I would love to see more focus on the quality of the learning experience our students receive and on ending bullying and violence in our schools and communities.
Parents who speak up in support of trans youth at school board meetings, regular people and professionals who use nonviolent noncooperation, strong coalitions of popular grassroots organizations, these combined efforts have the potential to counteract the general assembly’s latest batch of discriminatory laws.
Carl Hintz is a contributing editor at Triangle Free Press.
They teach high school science in Wake Co., N.C.