Relentless NC Activist Powers Fight To Protect Women’s Spaces

Perplexing as the North Carolina governor’s veto may be to her, Payton McNabb’s fight for women in North Carolina and across America remains girded in steely support with a vision for the future.

Even after the expected override Tuesday of Gov. Josh Stein on a bill defining men and women, her experiences at Hiwassee Dam High in Murphy and on the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee will fuel her fight for protection of women’s spaces in sports, bathrooms, and at universities, particularly sororities.

“All of those I had to fight because of one guy,” she told The Center Square on Friday by phone from her home in Murphy in a 1-on-1 interview, speaking of the latter three, referring to an incident in college. “It got completely out of hand with the way things were being handled. It makes me more thankful for the outcome of the last election. I don’t know how it would have played out if it had gone another way.”

Voters on Nov. 5 sent Republican Donald Trump back to the White House for a second term. On Day 1, he included an order to restore “biological truth” in defining men and women by reproductive cells. The North Carolina General Assembly on June 27 sent legislation in part codifying the order to the desk of Stein, who on July 3 affixed a veto stamp.

Gender policy is in Prevent Sexual Exploitation/Women and Minors (House Bill 805). Three Democratic senators and one representative in the House favored it; no Republicans in either chamber was opposed.

To override, each chamber of the General Assembly needs three-fifths majority of those present. Republican majorities are 30-20 in the Senate and 71-49 in the House of Representatives.