U.S. Lawmakers in Several States Have Debated Bills that Address Rights of LGBT Community
HOWELL: Welcome back to NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell. In the U.S., lawmakers in several southern states have recently debated bills that address the rights of gays, lesbians and transgender people. And one bill in the state of North Carolina has now become law. CNN's Nick Valencia looks at the major impact so far.</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's Saturday in Raleigh, North Carolina and this is a midday drag show, a fundraiser for LGBT awareness.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) on is Candis Cox.</s>VALENCIA: Candis Cox is the woman of the hour.</s>CANDIS COX, TRANSGENDER WOMAN: But the most important thing for me, personally, is that every time I close my eyes and I say a prayer and I ask my God as a person of faith how he feels, he doesn't seen to have a problem with it and my parents have no problem with it and their opinion matters to me.</s>VALENCIA: Cox is transgender.</s>COX: And Black trans women in North Carolina needs things that this in my back, though, not in my eye.</s>VALENCIA: He says she's one of the tens of thousands of transgender people in North Carolina affected by the Public Facilities Privacy and Securities Act. It's a new state law that requires trans people to use the public restroom related to the gender on their birth certificate, not how they identify.</s>COX: This law affects us because it puts us in danger and it is open discrimination. It's no different than the Jim Crow laws that we had here in the south.</s>ADAM DANIEL, CANDIS COX HUSBAND: (Inaudible) you look (inaudible).</s>VALENCIA: At home, Candis and her husband, Adam Daniel, say, now that she'll be required to use the men's room, they worry she'll be physically assaulted or worse.</s>PAUL STAM, STATE HOUSE REPUBLICAN PRO TEMP: I would say most of the attention is because the people do not understand what the bill actually does.</s>VALENCIA: State House Republican Pro Temp Paul Stam is one of the bill sponsors. Stam says the law is not about limiting the protections of the LGBT community, but rather not giving them special rights.</s>STAM: We have lots of accommodations in the bill for those in special circumstances, but we're trying to protect the reasonable expectations of privacy of 99.9 percent of our citizens who think when they're going into a restroom or changing room or locker room that they will be private.</s>VALENCIA: And he is a boy.</s>COX: Yeah, (inaudible) junior counselor.</s>VALENCIA: 19 surgeries, two trips to Thailand and more than $100,000 later, Cox is post-op transgender. Though her birth certificate says she's a man, she's with the trans community recall passable as a woman. But she says that doesn't make it any easier.</s>COX: We're all literally the same and we're all fighting for the same thing. We all just want to be accepted. And we want to know that we're not going to be discriminated against.</s>VALENCIA: Nick Valencia, CNN, Raleigh, North Carolina.</s>HOWELL: We now move onto Israel and the issue of medical marijuana. A family is using the controversial drug to treat their son's chronic health conditions and it's their last hope after other treatments fail to bring the toddler any relief. CNN's Oren Liebermann has this report for us.</s>OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For two and a half-year-old Lavie Parush, moments of joy are all too brief. Diagnosed with severe epilepsy and cerebral palsy from birth leaving him with brain damage, he suffered seizures dozens a day. Now, they're nearly all gone, with just a few drops a day of medical marijuana, cannabis oil mixed into his food.</s>ASAF PARUSH, LAVIE'S FATHER: We saw a difference immediately and then after a few weeks, we didn't see any seizures at all.</s>LIEBERMANN: Other medicines didn't work, his father says or worse, caused severe side effects. Lavie has now been on medical cannabis for a year and a half. This cannabis oil was developed in Northern Israel. The oil is high in CBD, the pharmacological ingredient in cannabis, and low in THC, the psychoactive ingredient of the drug that makes you high. There's little research on the effects of medical cannabis on babies, but Parush has all the results he needs. Lavie hasn't had a seizure in months.</s>PARUSH: This is kind of when we feel that.</s>LIEBERMANN: He takes the CBD oil daily, and a second oil of THC only when Lavie is having a bad day. When you give Lavie a drop of THC, that's the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, it makes him high.</s>PARUSH: In the beginning, we were pretty anxious about it, I guess, but then we thought, "Well, what are we seeing?" You know what I mean? We're seeing this kid that was before, he was in distress, and now he isn't.</s>LIEBERMANN: At home, Parush and his wife play with Lavie and his little sister, Gefen. The difference in development is stunning. She is 10 months old, a third of Lavie's age, and yet she can hold toys and play with their parents and so much more. This, Asaf Parush fears, will always be too much for Lavie. Instead, he just hopes one day to hear his son say, "Dad." Oren Liebermann, CNN, Northern Israel.</s>HOWELL: We turn now to weather around the world, but in portions of the United States, it is a lot colder than it should be for April. Our meteorologist Karen Maginnis is at the World Weather Center. Karen, what's happening?</s>KAREN MAGINNIS, METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, it is colder and it's snowier and it's blusterier, if you can have a word as that, but we've got a snowfall on the way stretching all the way from the Great Lakes into the Eastern Great Lakes and then finally across New England. We've got back to back storm systems, both are very fast moving, so it's high impact, short duration. And that's cold comfort, no pun intended, as you take a look at when it will be, right around 60 or 65 miles per hour, right around 100 to 110 kilometers per hour and we'll start to see the next wave of this move on in towards Monday. The snowfall is going to be fast and furious. There, you see in some of the coastal areas of Massachusetts and into Rhode Island in Connecticut, we're mostly seeing it as wet weather, but Western Massachusetts, the snowfall was already gone, also Washington, D.C. Dallas reported some snow flurries just about an hour or so ago. Well, there was the first wave, we've got another one right behind of the clipper system that actually develops and deepens as we go into the next 48 hours, and those temperatures are going to reflect the cold air that's going to be in place. Take a look at New York City, not until midweek where we expect those temperatures to start to creep back up again, but it will be the wind. It will be the blustery conditions, we are looking at snowfall totals, maybe in Boston, four to eight inches certainly possible. Take a look at this video coming out of China and it's a combination of speed, poor visibility, as well as the slippery roads. There were 56 vehicles involved in this deadly crash that claimed the lives of two people and sends about 30 people to the hospital. Take a look at this again. Just suppose to show you that on those slick roads, you never can be too careful. This happened in the past 24 hours, two fatalities associated with that. And then New York (ph), I mentioned this for two reasons because of this broad area that we'll watch for tropical development. But also in the past hour, there was a report of an earthquake, 6.9 magnitude, about 20 miles deep, but, George, no tsunami warnings have been issued. That is no tsunami warnings issued for the basin.</s>HOWELL: And that is important to make a point out. Karen, thank you so much. We'll stay in touch with you to continue following that as well. Next here on CNN NEWSROOM, hear what Donald Trump's thought about running for president more than 10 years ago. That's right, more than 10 years ago. Stay with us.