This story is part of a series of check-ins on where things stand on big issues like housing, immigration and education at the midpoint of the State House calendar. Find more stories at NHPR.org/crossover.
Republican majorities at the New Hampshire State House have made it a priority this legislative session to fight what they call “radical gender ideology,” by advancing bills that would roll back rights for LGBTQ Granite Staters in health care, education and more.
It’s a continuation of a trend seen over the past few years in Concord, where Republicans have introduced a wave of bills that would restrict the rights of transgender people – trans youth in particular.
Last year, state lawmakers limited gender-affirming surgeries for minors and barred trans athletes from competing in girls’ sports in grades 5-12. This year, they’ve introduced policies to expand those bans — outlawing more kinds of medical care, and restricting trans athletes’ participation in collegiate sports.
While former Gov. Chris Sununu signed some of those new restrictions into law, he also vetoed or expressed concern about other proposals targeting LGBTQ communities. Early on in her term, it’s not yet clear how Gov. Kelly Ayotte might respond should any of the new policies restricting LGBTQ rights reach her desk. She hasn’t explicitly addressed gender-affirming healthcare, but she has said keeping transgender athletes out of girls’ sports is important for fairness. We reached out to her office for a comment but did not receive a response.
Here’s a closer look at how the policy environment is shaping up on these issues, and how it’s affecting LGBTQ residents.
The broader context
Many of the policies being advanced in New Hampshire have also taken root in GOP-controlled state legislatures around the country, and are echoed by President Donald Trump’s recent executive actions targeting trans people in the military and other areas.
Some LGBTQ rights advocates in New Hampshire have described the current political climate as a shift from as recently as 2018, when the state passed a bipartisan bill protecting transgender people from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations.
“A lot of trans people I know are starting to look at potentially moving out of state,” said Linds Jakows, founder of the advocacy group 603 Equality.
Jakows said 603 Equality is preparing to hold “know your rights” training sessions in the event these bills pass, as well as storytelling events where trans people can speak about their experiences.
“Even if these bills pass, a key part of repealing them at some point is going to be just increasing understanding of trans people in communities,” Jakows said.
Gender-affirming care under fire
Last year, state lawmakers voted to ban gender-affirming genital surgeries for minors, despite no evidence those procedures were actually taking place in New Hampshire.
A pair of bills that cleared the New Hampshire House last month would go much further, effectively curtailing gender-affirming care for people under 18.
One bill would restrict puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormone therapy. The other would ban chest surgeries and other gender-affirming procedures before age 18.
The American Medical Association and other leading medical groups endorse access to gender-affirming care for youth, but Republican-controlled states around the country have argued that care is inappropriate for children and passed laws limiting it. Some of the same advocates who have shaped the national conversation on these restrictions also showed up in New Hampshire to argue for these bills, including a handful of people who say they transitioned and later came to regret it.
A much larger number of young trans people and families from New Hampshire have spoken out against these bills. They said the care that’s at the center of the proposed bans is essential and life-saving, a message echoed by medical and mental health professionals.
Renewed focus on ‘parental rights’
Both the House and Senate have passed versions of a “parental bill of rights,” which would require schools to fully answer any questions parents ask about their child.
The bills don’t single out gender and sexuality. But they were spurred in part by lawmakers’ outrage over a situation in which the Manchester School District did not tell a parent that their child was using a different name and pronouns at school. Critics have warned the bill could force schools to “out” LGBTQ students to their parents.
Similar proposals have fallen short in recent years. In 2022, an earlier parents’ rights bill was narrowly voted down after the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office raised concerns it could violate civil rights laws and Sununu threatened to veto it.
Republicans have since expanded their legislative majority, and Ayotte vowed during her campaign to pass parental rights legislation.
“Parents deserve to know what’s happening with their children,” she said in a WMUR primary debate last September.
New rules for bathrooms, jails
Another proposal would partially roll back the 2018 anti-discrimination law, which was signed by Sununu.
The bill would allow private businesses and government facilities, including schools, to require that trans people use the bathrooms corresponding with their sex assigned at birth, rather than their gender identity. It would also allow similar restrictions for locker rooms, and in jails and prisons.
A version of that bill passed last year, but Sununu vetoed it, saying it “seeks to solve problems that have not presented themselves in New Hampshire.”
Ayotte’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether she would sign that bill, or any of the others, if it made it to her desk.
