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North Carolina Gov. Stein signed SB 442, shielding foster/adoptive parents who refuse to affirm a transgender child's gender identity

On July 3, 2025, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein signed Senate Bill 442, the "Parents Protection Act," into law. The measure bars the state from bringing child-abuse or neglect findings against foster or adoptive parents solely for raising a transgender child according to the child's sex assigned at birth, including using birth-assigned pronouns and making medical decisions on that basis, and bars adoption/foster agencies from disqualifying prospective parents solely for declining to affirm a child's gender transition.

Jurisdiction
North Carolina
Location
Raleigh, North Carolina

Abuses documented

Actors

On July 3, 2025, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein signed Senate Bill 442, the "Parents Protection Act," after the state Senate passed it on June 24, 2025. Sponsored in part by Rep. Donnie Loftis (R-Gastonia), the law bars the state from bringing a child-abuse or neglect petition against a foster or adoptive parent solely because they raised a transgender child "consistent with the juvenile's biological sex," including using the child's birth-assigned pronouns or making medical decisions based on the child's sex assigned at birth; the law specifies these acts do not constitute "violence, abuse, neglect, or danger." It separately bars adoption and foster agencies from disqualifying prospective parents solely for declining to affirm a child's gender transition.

Loftis said the law responded to a shortage of foster parents, arguing that opposition to gender transition should not disqualify otherwise willing families. Rep. Deb Butler (D-New Hanover County) opposed the bill, saying that placing a gender-questioning child with a family known not to be supportive "is doing further damage to that child." Stein signed SB 442 the same day he vetoed four other bills he called "mean-spirited," including three bills targeting DEI policy in public education and state government and an amended version of House Bill 805, originally bipartisan anti-sexual- exploitation legislation that had gained anti-trans provisions — a split outcome on the same day's slate of gender-related legislation.

By exempting parents who decline to affirm a transgender foster or adopted child's gender identity from ordinary child-welfare scrutiny, the law singles out transgender minors in the child-welfare system for diminished protection. It follows a multi-state "Parents Protection Act" model-legislation pattern already recorded in the archive in Oklahoma (ok-discriminatory-policy-28bdcc25), Tennessee, Indiana, and Kansas.

Why we recorded this

Equal treatment under law bars the state from restructuring child-welfare standards so that a disfavored group's needs receive lesser protection. North Carolina enacted a law providing that raising a foster or adopted child according to the child's sex assigned at birth, including using birth-assigned pronouns, does not constitute child abuse or neglect, and that adoption and foster agencies may not disqualify prospective parents for declining to affirm a child's gender transition. By carving transgender foster and adopted children out of ordinary child-welfare scrutiny, the law singles out a protected characteristic for diminished protection, a discriminatory use of state authority against a marginalized group of children in state care.

Sources

  1. Governor Stein signs Parents Protection Act, vetoes other bills he decries as "mean-spirited" — WUNC primary accessed July 13, 2026
  2. Senate passes Parents Protection Act, limiting protection for trans foster youth and adoptees — WUNC investigative accessed July 13, 2026
  3. North Carolina S442 | LegiScan — LegiScan secondary accessed July 13, 2026

See also