CONCORD, NH – On Wednesday January 3rd and Thursday January 4th, advocates for LGBTQ+ safety and inclusion will rally at the state house to encourage state representatives to reject two bills leftover from last session that would harm transgender Granite Staters and two bills that would make New Hampshire a safer state for transgender people. If the bills on the House Calendar are taken up in alphabetical order by committee, as is usually the case, these bills are expected to be voted on late January 3rd or January 4th.
Retained bills
HB 619 would ban healthcare for transgender adolescents, and re-legalize anti-LGBTQ conversion therapy. It also broadly undermines the right to self-expression for transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming students in public schools. In 2019, this Legislature expanded NH’s nondiscrimination law, including protections for transgender people, explicitly to public schools. This bill would undermine those protections and subject transgender and gender nonconforming students to a school environment where they cannot be their true selves.
HB 396 would undermine New Hampshire’s nondiscrimination protections, which were updated to protect transgender people from discrimination in employment, housing, and public places in 2018. By codifying “biological sex” (an undefined term) as preeminent, HB 396 mistakenly assumes that a person’s birth sex alone should dictate key aspects of how they relate to the world. Although a person’s birth sex typically corresponds to everyday classifications in bathrooms, sleeping facilities, and sports, expecting perfect alignment for everyone is nonsensical. For many transgender people, excluding them from sex-separated facilities and activities that correspond to their gender identity can undermine cultural norms and cause serious harm. For example, a bathroom rule based on birth sex can have the effect of forcing a man into a women’s restroom, a woman into a men’s restroom, and, even worse, excluding some people from being able to use any restroom altogether. Excluding transgender people from important aspects of daily life is cruel and discriminatory, and it also serves no legitimate purpose.
HB 368 would make New Hampshire a safer state for transgender people who come to New Hampshire from states where healthcare for transgender people has been criminalized. HB 368 would preserve independence for New Hampshire law enforcement and medical care providers, preventing other states from reaching into New Hampshire and demanding private medical information and compliance with their laws.
HB 264 would simply remove the bureaucratic requirement that a judge approve a name and gender change on a birth certificate, instead, allowing a notarized signature from a healthcare provider. Transgender people need accurate and consistent IDs. Sometimes, inconsistent IDs can threaten trans people’s safety. Legislators should remove the impractical and meaningless burden of court involvement in this process. The burden on the court system is likewise unnecessary. Judges are not equipped to make a determination about a person’s gender and, in fact, judges already currently defer to what a person’s doctor says. There is no reason to force judges in the role of making gender determinations for identity documents.
At 9 AM on Wednesday January 4th, the New Hampshire Senate Education Committee will also hear testimony on SB 341, a bill that closely resembles last session’s HB 10 and SB 272, which were tabled and indefinitely postponed by two votes, respectively. While SB 341 lacks specific references to gender and sexuality, it requires not just teachers, but all public school employees, to respond “completely and honestly” to requests by parents for information relating to their child. The bill’s language requires school staff who have “good faith determination” that “such complete and honest response to a request would put the student at risk or endangerment of physical harm, abuse, or neglect,” the school staff is required to file a report with the Department of Health and Human Services. This text is based on an incorrect assumption that DHHS responds to allegations of potential harm, abuse, or neglect. Furthermore, the bill requires disclosure to parents regardless of whether a student expressly confided private information to a school staff member, forcing school staff to divulge information that could be overheard, undermining trust between students and school staff.
“Last year, New Hampshire lawmakers soundly rejected all attacks on LGBTQ Granite Staters,” said Linds Jakows, founder of 603 Equality. “We’re living in a time of record political attacks on LGBTQ people, especially transgender young people. New Hampshire must reject the manufactured outrage against transgender people and let us live free from this dangerous surveillance.”
“LGBTQ+ students, particularly transgender youth, are facing unprecedented targeting and attacks. Our public schools should be a place where students are fully embraced for who they are. Students cannot be free to learn, and thrive if they are facing unnecessary, harmful surveillance. We know that access to one healthy, and affirming adult significantly decreases suicide risk for LGBTQ+ youth. To deny our youth that support in school is to increase risk for an already vulnerable population.” -Heidi Carrington Heath, Executive Director, Seacoast Outright
“Equal rights are not a privilege, they’re a fundamental human principle. Everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, deserves to live authentically without fear of discrimination. Let’s champion inclusivity, understanding, and acceptance for a world where love knows no boundaries. We saw plenty of harmful legislation in 2023, 2024 again is full of problematic legislation directed to attack members of our LGBTQ+ community. We will stand with you, always linking arms.” – Sebastian Fuentes, Political Director, Rights & Democracy NH
All New Hampshire residents, including LGBTQ+ Granite Staters, deserve to live with dignity and free from discrimination, harassment, and violence. Our Legislature has repeatedly affirmed these basic principles of fairness and freedom by defeating multiple mean-spirited attempts to divide communities and needlessly single out LGBTQ+ people—especially transgender youth— for unfair treatment. It’s past time to stop these baseless legislative attacks on LGBTQ+ New Hampshire residents.” – Chris Erchull, Attorney, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD).
“LGBTQ+ Granite Staters belong everywhere and deserve to live openly and authentically without discrimination, harassment, or violence. New Hampshire has made clear time and again that LGBTQ+ people belong, and we urge legislators this year to continue voting against bills that are designed to attack these important rights and to continue supporting bills that protect them.” – Courtney Reed, Policy Advocate, ACLU of New Hampshire
“LGBTQ students are part of our public school communities, as are staff members. They belong in our public schools and classrooms along with their friends and neighbors. LGBTQ youth deserve a safe, respectful learning environment free from harassment, intimidation and discrimination, just like we expect for any other student. We urge lawmakers to reject any bill that stands in the way of including LGBTQ students in their local public schools and its activities.” – Deb Howes, President, AFT-NH.