By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — Lawmakers were told the direction of the current legislature on transgender issues have families wondering if they are safe in the state and no longer recognize the state where they grew up.

The House Thursday voted in favor of House Bill 712, which introduces limitations on breast surgeries for individuals under the age of 18, allowing such procedures only in specific circumstances. It passed 200 to 165 votes.

The House also voted to prohibit medical professionals from giving hormone treatments and puberty blockers to minors to treat them for gender dysphoria.

Opponents characterized House Bill 377 as discriminatory against a small group of young people and their parents, as decimating parental rights, criminalizing accepted health care and cruel.

“Denying one distinct class of minors their right to appropriate medical treatment and one distinct class of parents their right to make medical decisions in the best interests of their minor children,” said Rep. Jessica LaMontagne, D-Dover, “is not only discriminatory but also exceptionally cruel.”

But bill proponents said the medicines used for treating gender dysphoria are not approved by the Federal Drug Administration for that use and result in lifelong medical care.

Most children grow out of the affliction by adulthood if they are left to go through puberty, supporters said, and do not suffer lifelong complications such as brittle bones.

“This is not a question about parental rights,” said Rep. Lisa Mazur, R-Goffstown, “but about protecting children from harm.”

The bill would allow minors currently being treated for gender dysphoria to wean off the medications through the end of the year, but defeated an amendment that would have allowed those minors currently being treated to continue treatments while barring any new patients except in the case of an emergency.

Rep. Lucy Weber, D-Walpole, who proposed the amendment, said many of those being treated had been on the medications for some time and withdrawing will cause distress, exacerbate their existing health issues, change familial relationships and lead to low self-esteem.

“This is overt governmental intervention in the physician and patient relationship,” Weber said.

Numerous Representatives read stories from mothers of transgender children and the journeys they shared and how the state no longer feels like their home.

Rep. Alissandra Murray, D-Manchester, told of her friend who testified in opposition to House Bill 619 last year, which prohibits gender reassignment surgery on minors.

She has lived in the Granite State for 45 years and always did what was best for her children, Murray said, but she never expected the opposition to transgender surgery and treatments and knew she needed to find medical care for her daughter as soon as possible.

Murray said her friend realized her daughter could not live in New Hampshire and several months ago they made the decision to move out of state to be able to receive the treatments her daughter needs and because of the direction the legislature is taking the state.

Rep. Alice Wade, D-Dover, said she was saved by the very treatments the bill seeks to ban.

When she began hormone therapy as a minor, “I could not believe how much my life turned around,” she said. “I could not stand here today without it. My mental health improved drastically. I wish I had started sooner.”

But today the legislature is trying to prevent parents from helping their children who are desperate for health care, she said.

“It is willful ignorance,” Wade said. “They think they know better.”

She noted the “regret rate” for hip replacement surgery is 4 percent, while the regret rate for hormone treatment is 1 percent.

“The trans community has been brought into the crosshairs of politics” Wade said. “The public does not support this bill. If we are not here to listen to the people of New Hampshire who are begging us not to do this, what are we here for?”
But Mazur said children cannot fully comprehend the lifelong consequences on their bodies from the medications.

Children who are eight or nine years old are prescribed puberty blockers after just a few hours of consultation, she said.

“Gender dysphoria is real and it is painful,” Mazur said, “and those struggling with it deserve compassion, but rushing minors into these treatments is not the answer and they are not safe and not reversible.”

Multiple studies show there is little to no long-term support for the effectiveness of these treatments and some countries have banned the practices, she said.

LaMontagne said the bill would deny parents of trans children the right to make an informed decision to help their child.

“We just passed the parental bill of rights,” she said. “Do parents know best or not.”
She said who is the legislature to say that gender dysphoria is not real and should not be allowed to be treated? 

“This bill essentially tells trans kids that they are not real and do not exist. It punishes a very small vulnerable minority of children rather than admit that we just don’t understand,” LaMontagne said. “The cruelty of not allowing puberty blockers until children are 18 years of age is that trans children will not be able to escape developing secondary sexual characteristics they are hoping to avoid and will live with those for the rest of their lives.”

“Please don’t be a bully state,” LaMontagne told the House.

The bill passed on a 197-167 vote and now goes to the Senate.

Mazur said after the votes that HB 377 and HB 712 protect Granite State children from the harm of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and breast removal surgeries (with exceptions) before the age of 18.

“In New Hampshire, you need to be 18 to get a tattoo, be a notary, buy a lottery ticket, serve on a jury, and vote. Ironically, this year, Democrats filed legislation that prohibits the sale of over-the-counter weight loss and muscle building supplements to individuals under 18 years of age and imposes penalties on retail establishments that sell the supplements to minors, but think that taking harmful gender transition medications and cutting off perfectly healthy body parts as a child is okay,” said Mazur.

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