EqualityNC just sent out a new alert, proclaiming victory on a bill they and others have been working hard on for weeks. The School Violence Prevention Act (previous posts) passed the North Carolina House of Representatives Education Committee today. A threat to strip the bill of enumerated categories (including sexual orientation and gender-identity) was overwhelmingly defeated by the committee.
From EqualityNC:
We just achieved unprecedented success on our anti-bullying bill! The House Education Committee voted down by a wide margin the egregious Hilton Amendement seeking to remove not only LGBT youth but also other always-bullied groups from protection through our anti-bullying bill. The unamended bill then passed the committee, taking us one step closer to protecting our young people.
This is a huge victory for Equality North Carolina and we couldn’t have done it without our online activists–thank you! Special thanks go to our legislative allies and especially to Representative Rick Glazier for his courageous sponsorship.
Yesterday, I posted on how Republicans in the House Education Committee would attempt to strip the bill of all enumerated categories, including sexual orientation and gender-identity.
This is, indeed, a major victory for all North Carolinian children and youth and especially for our LGBT youth. The bill now moves to the floor of the House.
The bill text, summary and status can be viewed at website of the NC Legislature. It’ll take some time for the Legislature to update the status of the bill.
Technorati Tags: North Carolina, House of Representatives, Bullying
