News-Record.com

Republicans members of the state legislature are trying to knock down two bills related to sex.

S 526: School Violence Prevention Act, is also known as the bullying bill. The measure says that all bullying is bad but goes on to enumerate a number of categories of students who should not be bullied. That's the offending language for the GOP:

Bullying or harassing behavior includes, but is not limited to, acts reasonably perceived as being motivated by any actual or perceived differentiating characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, socioeconomic status, academic status, gender identity, physical appearance, sexual orientation, or mental, physical, developmental, or sensory disability, or by association with a person who has or is perceived to have one or more of these characteristics

The measure has passed the Senate and is in the House Health Committee today.

H 88: Healthy Youth Act, would require all schools systems to offer comprehensive sex education, a track separate from the current abstinence-focus curriculum used by schools.

The measure has passed the House and could be cleared by a Senate committee this week.

Again, Republican leaders say they have a number of problems with the bill, but complain that the term "comprehensive sexuality" education would include teaching about different sexual orientations.

"Sexual orientation and gender identity are so much larger than what people thing they are - it includes pedophilia for example," said Republican Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam, the House minority leader.

Although, he said, the GOP has problems with how both these bills will function, he said the larger issues were the ripple effects the bills could have in North Carolina law.

"The bullying bill is not really about bullying," Stam said, describing it as a "Trojan horse."

Pointing to a recent Iowa Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage in that state and North Carolina Republican's inability to push through a constitutional amendment on gay marriage, Stam said these bills were eroding "the normal understanding of the traditional family." (Not discussed, but worth talking about, California's Supreme Court is expected to rule on this topic today.)