NH Senate votes to ban transgender girls from girls sports: Will Sununu sign it?

CONCORD — New Hampshire's state Senate voted Wednesday to ban transgender girls from competing on girls sports teams.

House Bill 1205 would bar New Hampshire students in grades 5 through 12 from playing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity. It was one of multiple bills creating restrictions on transgender people that passed Thursday with all the legislation led by the Republican majority in the legislature.

Having now passed both chambers, the bill will next head to Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. If he signs it, the Granite State will join at least 24 states nationwide with similar bans on transgender student-athletes.

The Senate vote fell along party lines with Republicans voting to pass it, 13-10. Sen. Denise Ricciardi, R-Bedford, was excused due to illness. All 10 Democrats voted against the bill.

"I am female": NH transgender students had fought back against sports ban bill

Lawmakers also voted, 13-10, to pass HB 1312, which would expand sexual education notice requirements as well as prevent schools from adopting policies requiring teachers withhold information about children’s wellbeing when asked by parents, as well as a bill, HB 619, to ban gender-affirming procedures for minors.

NH Republicans, Democrats disagree in debate on transgender student-athletes

Republican senators said HB 1205 will promote fairness and safety in women’s sports.

Senate President Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, stepped down from his stand to take part in the discussion.

“Girls play hard. They play well. My daughter, when she hit the ball it went a long way, so I was pretty proud of her, but boys have an advantage,” Bradley said. “We will never be able to legislate total fairness. But what we can't do is create rights for one at the expense of another.”

More: Why are there so many bills about gender identity in New Hampshire? Experts weigh in

Sen. Dan Innis, a Republican, said he met Caitlyn Jenner, a transgender woman known for her connection to the Kardashian-Jenner family and Olympic prowess, through Innis' work for the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative organization that advocates for the LGBT+ community. Innis said Jenner told him that this legislation is a “common sense approach to sports in high school” because “Jenner in high school would have destroyed every female athlete that he ever came up against if he was transitioning.” Jenner transitioned years after winning gold in the Olympic decathlon.

Sen. Suzanne Prentiss, D-Lebanon, and Sen. Donovan Fenton, D-Keene, pushed back on the legislation, questioning how the law would be enforced and how a student’s sex would be determined under the bill since birth certificates can be changed to reflect one’s gender identity.

“Are we asking male coaches to check the genitals of a 10-year-old girl?” asked Fenton. “Or will administrators be going to students directly and asking them in private to pull down their pants? The vagueness of this bill makes it completely unclear as to how the school will comply with this requirement.”

Democratic senators also questioned the contention by Republicans that the bill is about helping girls.

“If there was such a deep and abiding concern for girls’ sports opportunities, we would be mandating fidelity to Title IX and providing equitable opportunities for investment and participation in school sports for all genders,” said Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham. “If anyone should be targeted for stealing thousands of athletic playing opportunities from girls and women, it should be boys and men's athletic programs, not a very tiny number of transgender students.”

Republican senators also vote for bill that could out students

The Senate also voted, 13-10, in favor of HB 1312, a bill that would expand notice requirements to parents about any subjects related to sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity.

HB 1312 would also bar schools from adopting policies that prohibit teachers and other employees from answering parents’ questions about their child’s wellbeing.

Senate Republicans say the bill would give parents a “bigger voice in the classroom."

“This body has been dancing around for at least a year when we're talking about this. And it's about all the crap that's being taught in our public school system today,” said Sen. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry. “Parents just want to know, they want to be informed. Parents are not the enemy here. But they've become the enemy when they ask questions. And that's wrong.”

Opponents of the bill have expressed concern the bill would lead to classroom censorship as well as potentially cause school staff members to "out" students to their families before they are ready, in some cases putting them in danger. Megan Tuttle, President of NEA-New Hampshire, the largest teacher’s union in the state, said in a statement the bill could “chill” classroom conversations because of its “vague” language.

Chris Erchull, an attorney for GLBTQ Legal Advcocates and Defenders, said that the language is so broad that it would apply to any discussion of a person’s sexual orientation in the classroom, including heterosexuals. Many Democratic senators echoed this issue on the Senate floor, using examples like gendered words in foreign languages.

“Every single person in the world has a sexual orientation and every single person in the world has a gender identity,” Erchull said. “How could you possibly talk about Henry the Eighth and his six wives, you know, if you don't acknowledge his gender and sexual orientation?”

But Sen. Tim Lang, R-Sanbornton, said that it only includes specific instruction, not topics: therefore, it wouldn’t include a class on someone like Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in California.

Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, R-Manchester, said he has taught all his life, beginning in 1961, and this type of legislation puts restrictions on teachers.

“We’re there to teach. We’re there to create good citizens. We’re there to enable these young men and women to move forward,” D’Allesandor said, raising his voice. “This nonsense that we're talking about here today inhibits good teaching.”

Senate approves bill to ban gender affirming care

The Senate also voted in favor of HB 619, which would ban minors from receiving gender affirming procedures, like gender reassignment surgery. It again fell along party lines with Republicans voting in favor, 13-10.

Sen. Daryl Abbas, R-Salem, said that the bill will “protect New Hampshire children from making a permanent decision that they’re too young to make.”

“We all want our kids to be happy,” said Sen. Bill Gannon, R-Sandown. “If we see them struggling, if we see them in pain, it's very tempting to give them what they want. Of course, we can't always do that. As parents we know that the kids are often incapable of making good long-term decisions in their best interests.”

Bradley brought up the many laws the Senate has passed prohibiting minors from doing various things, like smoking tobacco and getting married.

Sen. Sue Prentiss, D-West Lebanon, said that the procedures are very rare and have not been done in New Hampshire, therefore the initial movement to prohibit such surgeries are more of a “statement” rather than being able to impact something. She and Whitley also argued that this bill would interfere with parental rights, something the body usually supports.

A few Democratic senators said gender-affirming care should not be legislated.

“I think we should leave it to the medical profession, and parents, then the miners to work through what seems appropriate in the light of medical information,” said Sen. David Watters, D-Dover. “Life altering? Well, yeah, it's life altering because it's going to help them achieve who they truly are as a transgender person.”

Will Sununu sign bills relating to transgender students?

The ACLU of New Hampshire urged Sununu to veto the bill banning transgender athletes.

“Trans students belong on our sports teams and in our schools, and all trans youth should be celebrated and protected for who they are. HB 1205 runs against federal and state law, and would discriminate against transgender youth in ways that compromise their health, social and emotional development, and safety,” Courtney Reed, policy advocate at the ACLU-NH, said in a statement. “Governor Sununu has made clear that LGBTQ+ people are valued members of our Granite State community, and we ask him to put an immediate stop to this deeply harmful legislation and veto all of the hostile legislation that has advanced today as soon as it reaches his desk.”

In 2018, Sununu signed a bill to ban discrimination based on gender identity, saying any discrimination “runs contrary to New Hampshire’s Live Free or Die spirit.” He faced criticism from social conservatives in the state.

Last year, he along with 24 other Republican governors signed a letter criticizing the Biden administration’s proposal to ban sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs. This plan would outlaw schools from blocking transgender students from joining sports teams aligning with their gender identity. At the time, Sununu said his concern was over “local control.” The final regulations were released in April by the U.S. Department of Education in April, which stated its “rulemaking process is still ongoing for a Title IX regulation related to athletics.”

In March, Sununu told WMUR he doesn’t “believe that biological boys should be competing in girls’ sports,” saying it is “dangerous,” but that he was planning to wait to see what HB 1205 says when it gets to his desk.

The jury is also still out for HB 1312. In 2022, Sununu opposed a ‘parental bill of rights’ bill that would’ve required schools to notify parents if their child asked questions about their gender identity. But last year he said that he generally supported a bill that would’ve required school employees to respond to parent questions about if their child is using a different name or pronouns (a bill that ended up failing in the House).

Sununu’s office did not respond to a request for a comment on the bills voted on by the Senate this week.

Editor's note: Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, is the wife of Howard Altschiller, executive editor of Seacoast Media Group.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: NH Senate votes to ban transgender girls from girls sports