By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — Supporters of the legislature’s attempt to prohibit transgender medical care to minors called it conversion therapy and opponents called it government overreach into private and sensitive medical care.

An all-day hearing of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee had an overflow crowd of advocates on both sides as they told their stories of finally finding relief or of regret and physical suffering.

The sometimes heated exchanges also included the chair of the committee, Sen. David Rochefort, R-Littleton, who took offense when Boscawen therapist Holly Testerman, who works with trans children among other clients, said she refers patients to other providers if she believes their concerns are outside her core scope of care, and then said the issues before the committee are beyond the core scope of legislators as they don’t work with trans youth or in the mental health or the medical field.

“Children, and their doctors, and families deserve the best care,” Testerman said.

Rochefort noted the legislature deals with bridges and roads, should they be engineers and then said he took exception to her statement and asked her who determines her license to be a therapist.

Testerman said the board of medicine, and Rochefort said the legislature gives the board that authority. 

“We are a citizen legislature of 425 (424) from all walks of life,” Rochefort said with his voice rising, “with the constitutional authority to delegate certain rights and privileges.. . .We are elected by the people to do this job.”

What is your question, she asked him, and he shot back, “I am the one who asks the questions” and said he was making a statement because “she crossed the path and made a big accusation across all of us.”

Sen. Kevin Avard, R-Nashua, said one of the people testifying called gender changing treatment a backdoor form of conversion therapy and asked if she encouraged individuals to follow that type of treatment.

“I am not sure the question makes sense to me,” Testerman said. “It is not converting if it is their identity.”

Several people testifying earlier in the meeting said removing the breasts of minors is a type of conversion therapy and others called the treatment and consultation process for trans women grooming and mutilation.

Jamie Reed, a national anti-transgender changing advocate who worked at a pediatric clinic in Missouri for transgender treatment, but became a whistleblower against the practice, said there has been an explosion of young girls going to pediatric transgender clinics in recent years calling it is social looping, done through the constant use of cell phones.

Reed said while there has been testimony that breast removal surgery is not done on anyone under 18 years old in New Hampshire and at Dartmouth Health facilities, they have proof that between 2013 and 2022 there were 43 cases of minors having mastectomies based on health insurance claims.

She said the majority were done at Dartmouth Hitchcock, but also performed at Elliot and Exeter hospitals.

And she claimed there is rampant fraud in the system.

The explosion in young girls going to pediatric transgender clinics is worldwide, Reed said, and noted they are being told they will magically feel free to identify as boys.

“The safest thing to do is to not remove any body parts of any minors,” she said. “This social contagion is harming these children. We are in a brand new era with the devices we put in their hands.”

But Courtney Tanner, Senior Director of Government Relations for Dartmouth Health, said no breast removal surgeries are performed on those under 18 for cosmetic reasons, but are when it is a medical necessity.

“We do not support top surgery for those less than 18 years old,” Tanner said. “That information floated around several months ago. We understand it is falsified data.”
The committee held hearings on two bills Wednesday, House Bill 712 which would prohibit breast surgery on minors for cosmetic reasons or gender change, and House Bill 377 which would prohibit health care providers from treating minors with hormone therapy or puberty blockers.

Rep. Lisa Mazur, R-Goffstown, is the prime sponsor of both bills, who argued the treatments cause irreversible physical harm to young people with lifetime implications.

“This is not a cosmetic change, it is a life changing decision, there is no undo button,” Mazur said. “There are times when the legislature needs to step in and say enough is enough.”
But others said these bills would block life changing medical help for young people when they need it most and would harm the sacred relationship between a patient and his or her physician and their parents.

Lee Brown, a transgender male from Lebanon and a medical student, said he does not know what would have happened to him if the bills were in place when he was young.

“I hope to stay in New Hampshire. My partner and I had a conversation about where we want to raise a family and have access to care no matter where they are and who they are,” Brown said. “(These bills) will have a negative impact on a lot of people who are going through a very difficult time.”
Ty Thompson of Nottingham told the committee transgender people have existed across time and across cultures, but certainly not with the “extensive vitriol” seen today.

He said gender dysphoria has also existed across time and in young people long before they could access health care.

Thompson said it is harmful to create blanket legislation that will harm many people, noting “we are in the live free or die state.”

Steve Scaer of Nashua said transgenderism is a religion that a girl’s soul can possess a boy’s body. He said gender identity is all imaginary.

“The medical industry is selling a myth, a story with a happy ending ,” Scaer said.

Everlyn Allman of Boston said she began to go through the transgender process, but stopped. 

She said there are many supportive parents who agree to have their child go through hormone therapy, puberty blockers and surgery, and women are doubly caught up in the trans idea.

Allman said they are sold the idea they can escape their bodies and suddenly that will solve all of life’s problems.

But if they are allowed to go through puberty and avoid the pressure of something being wrong with their bodies they will end up like her, same sex attracted.

“Lesbian, gay and bisexual bodies are being irreversibly mutilated,” Allman said. “That is not health care, that is a form of conversion therapy.”

Nancy Brennan of Weare opposed the bills saying using words like grooming and mutilation “is different than the way we talk about health care.”

She also referenced the number of young people sitting in the room from out-of-state who travel state to state to stop transgender care.

This is not about make believe, it is about a reality that has existed “throughout history and through our cultures. Please do not take away health care,” Brennan told the committee.

The electronic system showed HB 712 had 105 people in favor and 1,279 in opposition, while HB 377 had 106 in support and 1,659 in opposition.

The committee did not make an immediate recommendation on either bill.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.