(The Center Square) – 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.
Stein is married and has a 21-year-old daughter in addition to two sons.
“I will never understand his veto,” said McNabb, who turned 20 in March. “I genuinely do not understand how a father – it shouldn’t even be hard because he’s an elected official, elected to protect the women of his state. At the end of day, he’s a father and a husband. For him to fail so miserably … for him not to care what happened to me or the other women in his state, is incredibly sad.”
Her father, she said, “has common sense. Seeing how he responded and acts – I could just never ever, ever, ever, imagine my dad being on the wrong side of this issue. As a real man and father, who cares about his daughter, I could never see him not agreeing with what I am saying, and what 80 or 90% of the country is saying.”
Stein wrote in his veto message, “The General Assembly chooses to engage in divisive, job-killing culture wars. North Carolina has been down this road before, and it is a dead end. My faith teaches me that we are all children of God no matter our differences and that it is wrong to target vulnerable people, as this legislation does.”
Gender ideology gained momentum during the administration of Joe Biden. In North Carolina, however, Democrat Roy Cooper’s 2016 gubernatorial win over incumbent Republican Gov. Pat McCrory was helped significantly by what was known as House Bill 2, or the bathroom bill. The 2016 legislation said individuals using public restrooms must use the one matching their birth certificate.
McCrory signed it, Cooper led its repeal in 2017. Seven years later, McNabb had a restroom encounter at Western Carolina with a “trans-identified male” – meaning, a male at birth, known that day as Paige LeBlanc. Both filed complaints. The university threw out McNabb’s complaint and initiated a Title IX probe against her it eventually lost in acknowledging she did not harass the 27-year-old.
Still, Delta Zeta had kicked her out citing “anti-bullying” and “moral-prejudicial conduct.” She wrote on social media, “I was kicked out of my sorority for stating the simple truth: men don’t belong in women’s bathrooms.”
McNabb – in the process of transferring from Western Carolina as she pursues a communications degree – had physical and emotional pain from the spike of a player on the Highlands High girls volleyball team in a match Sept. 1, 2022. It ended her high school career and sparked her decision to speak out as an 18-year-old to the General Assembly on the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act of 2023.
“That’s a different kind of hurt,” she said. “That was a loss. I lost out on a lot of things. Senior year, it was such a highlight time of life.
“The feeling I felt at Western Carolina when all of the bathroom stuff happened – the things with the sorority, fighting harassment charges, the school I had loved, my family had loved. I found my community and friends and started to love going there. To betray me – that was a different kind of hurt. It was a slap in the face and betrayal. It pushed me to fight for every space. Sports are my No. 1, and I’ll fight for them to the end. This made me think it’s so much bigger. It’s every single category that women are having to face. Now I’m speaking on sports, bathrooms, universities and sororities.”
She’s alongside and close friends with the face of the effort – Riley Gaines, the 12-time All-American swimmer from Kentucky. And Paula Scanlan. She’s the swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania told along with teammates by school leaders to stay quiet regarding Lia Thomas, who swam for three years on the men’s team before transitioning.
“We’ve all experienced some kind of gender ideology,” McNabb said. “We wouldn’t have met otherwise. It’s the greatest thing I’ll take from this experience – such strong and courageous women.
“I think everyone is in it for the right reasons. Everyone just wants to see change. They’re trying to go at it in the most genuine way. All had a different life planned out. Riley was going to be a dentist, Paula was engineering. No one was politics. For all of us to come together, make it political, and we’re in the middle of it – it’s such a crazy shift. I couldn’t have asked for a better group to do it with, just for how positive and encouraging everyone is in front and behind the cameras.”
As she speaks, the warmth of these friends mixed with her family is evident as she meets the challenges of cold health realities nearly three years after the spiked volleyball. She describes the brain as the body’s computer, and navigation of a new normal. Cognition, headaches and fatigue remain concerns, along with the need for a chiropractor periodically.
“My family can see the difference in me, but it’s getting to the point I can’t – that’s scary,” McNabb said. “My good Lord and Savior is healing me every day. I couldn’t be more thankful for that.”
Maturity in her growth is also evident. When vandalism of the Our Bodies Our Sports “Take Back Title IX” Bus Tour happened two years ago in Chapel Hill, her first thought was, “Out of 30 states, it was my state. It was embarrassing for a second, but given where we were at, I wasn’t totally in shock.”
Today, she says, “It’s not changing anything. Everything we’re talking about, we’re going to talk about. And everything that happened, it happened.”
Disenfranchising – a word more often heard in the debate on voting integrity – means to deprive a right or privilege. The right to private spaces, McNabb assures, won’t end with the veto override.
“There’s definitely a lot more that should happen,” she said. “This is a step. The bathroom – it needs to be taken care of. There are girls still having to share the bathroom with boys, and locker rooms with boys. That’s the biggest next step. There’s so many other things to do in my home state. My full focus is putting the pressure on getting this sex definition bill passed. Biological distinction matters. If it had been there a little over three years ago, this wouldn’t have happened to me. I think this is a big step, but there’s plenty to still do.”
