Johnston County LGBTQ+ advocate Ben Chapman has been at the forefront of fighting for Johnston County’s LGBTQ+ youth and residents — he’s spoken at school board meetings, addressed the General Assembly and rallied others to reach out to Johnston County representatives regarding what he called the “slate of hate laws” the legislature was proposing.
Part of his work involved communicating with longtime North Carolina House Rep. Donna White, who has served four terms as one of Johnston County’s representatives. Chapman first contacted White in April 2022 after he read the leaked Dobbs v. Jackson opinion, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade. He said when he called her office, White was the one who answered the phone, which initially impressed him.
“I explained to her I’m really concerned about the fact that Loving v. Virginia and Obergefell v. Hodges are mentioned, as I’m in a gay, interracial relationship,” Chapman explained to Qnotes.
Chapman said she reassured him by explaining she’d treated LGBTQ+ patients throughout her career as a registered nurse, and she would make sure to keep her queer constituents in mind when she was voting on policies.
So when HB 819 was filed and White was listed as the primary sponsor of the bill, Chapman felt confusion and concern. HB 819, also known as the Protect the Right of Conscience of Medical Practitioners and Health Care Institutions, would have allowed healthcare workers to deny patients “any health care service which violates his, her, or its conscience.” This would technically allow doctors, nurses and pharmacists to deny care to anyone they see as violating their morals, which could include reproductive healthcare, gender-affirming care and more.
Chapman rallied fellow Johnston County LGBTQ+ residents and allies to contact White’s office to try to get the bill pulled from the legislative calendar. A few months after trying to reach White, Chapman received a voicemail from White acknowledging his concerns. Chapman shared the voicemail in its entirety with Qnotes.
In the voicemail, White said she was able to get HB 819 off the calendar, but that wasn’t the most surprising part of the voicemail. White claimed her name was put on the bill by someone else, and that she hadn’t even read the bill.
“It was not my bill, but unfortunately it was – my name was forced on it, and I had not even read the bill,” White offered to Chapman. “I realized what it was doing [and] I knew that it was just not the bill that I needed to run at that time.”
White went on to explain the health committee voted on the bill, and she said it didn’t have enough votes to pass. However, the chair claimed it was a “positive vote,” which made it move forward to the point it reached before White managed to get the calendar pulled.
“It went out of Judiciary 1 [stage] and I was able to – working with groups – I was able to
get it pulled out of Judiciary 1 … and it is a dead bill,” she explained.
Chapman said the fact she was able to get the bill pulled was good, but he was concerned after she claimed she was forced to be the sponsor of the bill.
“My impression is if she’s telling the truth in this voicemail, she should have made that known to the people of her district that she didn’t write this bill, didn’t read it, they put her name on it and so she got rid of it,” Chapman said.
Concerns aside, Chapman was left semi-reassured the Johnston County representative would be more understanding of LGBTQ+ issues in comparison to some of her colleagues. However, Chapman said he and others were deceived by White, as it was her committee that constructed and filed HB 808 (a bill very similar in nature to 819), which banned health professionals from providing gender-affirming care to trans people under 18.
Chapman said for White to approve and vote in favor of a gender-affirming care ban after using her nursing background to assure him she wasn’t prioritizing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation felt like she had gone against her word.
“She actually pulled it from the calendar, so I was kind of chalking it up as somewhat of a success,” he offered. “But after that was when she was the chair of the committee that introduced the gender-affirming care ban [HB 808], and she totally followed the party line when it came to other bills.
“She just deceived us.”
Another concern of Chapman’s revolves around the fact White said her name was “forced” onto the bill. After the state legislature revised its public records laws in 2023, Chapman feels it will only lead to what he calls deception by legislators.
“The people of North Carolina are owed an accurate legislative record,” he explained. “HB 819 didn’t pass thankfully, but I’ve been mulling over the implications of this voicemail for months.
If what she is saying in this voicemail is true, it is concerning that the primary and sole co-sponsor of this bill didn’t write it and had not read it.”