When Craig Cunningham goes door-knocking in Derry to ask for support in his campaign for state representative, he brings a pamphlet introducing fellow Democratic candidates running as a ticket they’ve called “Derry Unity.”
That pamphlet also lists the issues most important to them. The first item focuses on collaboration, the second focuses on protecting abortion access. The third: “Defend LGBTQ+ rights.”
Even before running for office, Cunningham was part of a group of Derry residents who joined together to promote LGBTQ+ rights and visibility in the last year and a half. They helped to establish Derry’s inaugural Pride month celebrations, put up Pride flags at businesses, confronted public officials about their positions on LGBTQ+ issues and supported candidates in local school board elections.
The group mobilized partly in response to a series of incidents that left local LGBTQ+ residents feeling shaken.
In 2021, a drag queen story hour at a Derry public library drew controversy after some critics raised concerns on procedural grounds, saying there should have been a forum for questions and public input before the event was finalized. But some opposed to the event scorned drag queens and LGBTQ+ people on social media. Members of a far right group, The Proud Boys, showed up to protest. One of Derry’s state representatives is now facing a defamation lawsuit after accusing a local drag queen of being a convicted sex offender.
And more recently, community members in Derry organized earlier this year to take down a billboard advertising a book that falsely characterizes children identifying as transgender as a "craze" explained in part by mental health issues. The activist who paid for the billboard has said he chose to place it in Derry because it’s home to New Hampshire’s largest high school.
Now, Cunningham and some other Derry Democrats who’ve rallied behind LGBTQ+ rights in their hometown are trying to change their community’s representation at the State House — in part because they say current lawmakers aren’t doing enough to fight for inclusion and equality.
For Cunningham, the issue is personal.
“I have a son who's gay, and he doesn't feel welcome in this town,” he said. “And that's terrible when your own child won't move back to the community that he pretty much grew up in.”
State House debates in Derry
Derry is one of the largest towns in the state and a reliable Republican stronghold. In recent years, local voters have sent a conservative slate of lawmakers to the State House, where they’ve advocated for tax cuts, school choice, gun rights and abortion restrictions.
When Cunningham first moved to Derry, he was a registered Republican. He said he switched affiliations in 2020 largely because of his support for abortion and same-sex marriage, both opposed by the New Hampshire Republican Party’s official platform.
On the campaign trail this year, Cunnigham said voters mostly want to talk about boilerplate issues and it’s unclear how, if at all, concerns about LGBTQ+ issues will impact the November elections.
That’s also how Rep. Katherine Prudhomme-O’Brien, a longtime Republican legislator from Derry and one of the lawmakers Cunningham hopes to unseat, described her experience talking to voters this fall.
“Mostly I'm talking about other issues like electricity rates and heating oil,” she said.
And she takes issue with the message from Derry Democrats that some of the town’s residents and lawmakers are unwelcoming.
“Most people I speak to want the other members of their community treated fairly and treated with respect,” she said.
At the same time, Republican lawmakers from Derry have supported legislation that LGBTQ+ advocates see as part of a national backlash against transgender students, who researchers have found to experience higher rates of harassment and depression and to face higher rates of sexual assault when restricted to certain bathrooms and locker rooms.
One such bill would have allowed schools to ban transgender people from female sports teams. Another, co-sponsored by Prudhomme-O’Brien, would have allowed public institutions, including schools and jails, to ban transgender people from bathrooms and other rooms that align with their gender identity.
Prudhomme-O'Brien, a sexual abuse survivor, said she supported the latter measure as a way to preserve safe, private spaces for ciswomen and not because she thinks transgender people are dangerous.
'Parental rights' issues are motivating both parties
This election season, Republicans in New Hampshire and across the country have also championed a set of causes they’ve dubbed “parental rights.” Broadly, this focuses on affirming parents’ power to direct their kids’ education and medical care, and expanding their control over how schools with an increasingly diverse population address issues of sexuality, gender and race.
While Prudhomme-O’Brien said economic issues seem to be top of mind for most voters in town she said some are also paying attention to this.
“It's extremely rare for parents to not want to help their children and do what's best for them,” she said. “And even if these are difficult issues for the parents, the overwhelming majority of parents love their children and want to do what's best for them, and they should be given the ability to do that.”
One parental rights bill that stirred up a bitter fight at the New Hampshire State House earlier this year was sponsored by a Derry Republican, Rep. John Potucek.
That proposal drew sharp criticism after lawmakers introduced an amendment that could have required schools in some instances to “out” LGBTQ+ students to their parents without their consent — including from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office, which warned it could violate civil rights protections for those students. The bill narrowly failed when a small group of Republicans broke with their party to vote against it.
But both Republicans and Democrats are preparing for more fights on these issues, as a new parental rights bill has been submitted for the next legislative session.
Ellen Gallo, another Democrat campaigning for state representative in Derry, said she was motivated to run in part because of her fear that the parental rights legislation would violate students’ privacy.
“At the end of the day, no one has the right to out an LGBTQ person without their permission, period,” she said. “Like, that's the fundamental — that's the line that can't be crossed.”
Gallo said she started paying more attention to what was happening at the State House because she was concerned lawmakers would roll back protections for her daughter, who is transgender.
And where some of Gallo’s neighbors see schools teaching kids too much about gender and sexuality, she sees schools as a place where students become more accepting — including of kids like hers.
“I see kids being exposed to different types of kids, different types of religion, different types of people,” she said. “It's called being in community, being in a life that's bigger than the bubble of, you know, you and your family and your beliefs.”
Editor’s note: An earlier broadcast version of this story imprecisely characterized one of the bills sponsored by Rep. Katherine Prudhomme-O’Brien. This story accurately describes that legislation.
