The new edition of the N.C. State Personnel Manual will include employment protections based on sexual orientation and gender-identity.

N.C. State Rep. Paul Stam (R-Wake) is speaking out against the new changes. According to The Lincoln Tribune, the representative says state agencies are bypassing the legislature.

N.C. Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam (R-Wake) opposes new State Personnel Manual policies banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender-identity.

“Unaccountable commissions are making vague and unnecessary rules,” Stam said. “Rule-making is being used to make new policy that could not get through the legislature. Though it is happening in public view, it is a process not generally understood or reported.”

He added, “Rules and program policy changes that are proposed by state agencies was not meant to be a way to bypass the legislature.”

Stam’s primary objections focus on rules banning employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender-identity, and two grant applications by agencies who claim they’ll provide “comprehensive sexual education.”

“The State Personnel Manual published last month included rules against discrimination in hiring based on ‘gender expression’ and established new categories protecting applicants who ‘self-identify’ as being ‘gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered,’” he said. “Public Health approved changes for programs applying for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative, requiring participants to outline plans for teaching ‘Comprehensive Sexual Education’ and changing Abstinence into merely contraception, counter to state law passed in 1996.”

Stam, the N.C. House Republican Leader, opposed the School Violence Prevention Act and its list of enumerated categories which also included sexual orientation and gender-identity.

In May 23, 2007, debate on the bill, Stam offered an amendment to delete the enumerated list from the legislation.

“Under this bill, if a seven-year-old comes in dressed the wrong gender, that means they are protected,” Stam said during debate. “Then you have sexual orientation. What does that mean? Behavior, how you look at someone? They never will answer that question. Then the next line says ‘is perceived to have one or more of these characteristics.’ The effect of this bill is to create a nightmare.”

Stam’s amendment was defeated 59-58. The next day, Stam attempted to derail the bill during its final reading when he moved to recess the House for five minutes. Again, his motion failed.

Changes in the State Personnel Manual are not law and apply only to executive branch agency employees. The revised protections will not benefit employees of the legislative or judicial branch, community colleges or local public school systems.