Michael Bunting (father)
Pronouns: he/him
Shelley Bunting (mother)
Pronouns: she/her
C.B. (son – not pictured)
Pronouns: he/him
Michael Bunting, 52, lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with his wife, Shelley, and their 13-year-old son, C.B., who is transgender. Michael has been a UNC employee since 1990. Michael’s son, C.B. is in eighth grade. His favorite subjects in school are math and science and he likes swimming, parkour, and lacrosse. C.B. was assigned female at birth, but he has known he is male since he was very young, and in 2017, he told his parents that he is transgender. During the summer of 2017, when Michael’s NCSHP plan would cover C.B.’s care, he socially transitioned and doctors at Duke prescribed puberty-delaying medication. In 2018, when the transition-related care exclusion was reinstated, Michael and Shelley appealed to the NCSHP Board of Trustees because they were worried they could not pay for C.B.’s puberty-delaying medication out-of-pocket, but to no avail. The family had to purchase additional insurance with a high deductible in order to afford C.B.’s treatment. Michael is retiring from UNC in April after nearly 30 years of service, due in part to the discriminatory burden the exclusion places on his family.