New Hampshire, a ‘Blue’ State, Is a Testing Ground for GOP’s Anti-Trans Push
Despite its record of voting Democratic, the state has seen a harsh, partisan turn that threatens trans care and rights.
by Denny
New Hampshire has become a key test of Republican efforts to enact sweeping anti-trans discrimination in regions of the country seen as blue. The state, though it has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 2004, is controlled by Republican lawmakers in both chambers who have made the enactment of harsh anti-trans restrictions a priority.
The Republican majorities have advanced a series of measures this session that would effectively ban all forms of gender-affirming care for young people and strip trans people of a wide array of protections enshrined in the state’s anti-discrimination law.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a first-term Republican, has not announced whether she would sign the legislation, though she earlier signed a bill that advocates say will inevitably lead to the forced outing of students.
Three key bills await Ayotte’s decision:
House Bill 377 would ban, with limited exceptions, the prescription of puberty blockers and hormones for trans people under 18, with the prohibitions taking effect Jan. 1. A second health care measure, House Bill 712, would tighten prohibitions on top surgery for those under 18.
But the most sweeping ramifications for trans people are contained in House Bill 148, a blunt-force discriminatory measure that was effectively copied word-for-word from legislation that Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed last year.
HB 148 would reverse protections for trans people that were established under a 2018 anti-discrimination law. The move would allow New Hampshire businesses and groups to ban trans people from bathrooms, enable schools to bar trans athletes, and permit authorities to send trans people to detention and mental health facilities that don’t align with their gender.
Such a move would be a major retreat from trans rights in the state, and would be a first in New England. For one advocate, the Republicans’ harsh partisan maneuvering over several years has led the state to this moment.
“If these bills pass, we do expect there to be increased hostility, harassment, even violence against trans people—particularly transfemmes,” said Linds Jakows, a nonbinary person who had worked on the campaign that led to the passage of the 2018 anti-discrimination law.
Just five years later, Jakows founded the queer rights organization 603 Equality to respond to the escalating anti-trans movement. “We needed to do a lot more than just turn people out at the last minute,” Jakows said in an interview with Assigned Media. “We needed to do real community organizing and have an organization behind that.”
Since then, the group has been active in testifying at the state legislature, generating grass-roots support and alerting residents to mounting threats. That has left Jakows and their group with a broad perspective grounded in the state’s particular brand of politics.
For example, Jakows sees some hope in Ayotte’s positions in defense of bodily autonomy and her explicit vows to oppose further restrictions on abortion rights. They also noted that parents of trans and nonbinary children met with Ayotte’s staff this month to underline the vital importance of maintaining access to gender-affirming care.
Though Ayotte has been relatively quiet on anti-trans health care legislation, she did sign H.B. 10 earlier this month, which under the flag of “parental rights” effectively requires school employees to disclose a student’s gender identity and sexual orientation to parents, even if that is against the student’s wishes.
Republicans have succeeded in tilting the electoral landscape in their favor over the last several years, Jakows said. The state Senate now has a far heavier Republican majority: 16 Republicans to eight Democrats, compared to the 14-10 split in the previous session.
Jakows pointed to gerrymandering following the 2020 census that favored districts leaning Republican. Although 52 percent of New Hampshire residents voted for Democratic candidates for state Senate in 2022, more Republicans than Democrats actually won seats.
The Republican partisanship that has taken hold can be seen in the legislature’s conference committees, which are intended to hash out differences in each chamber’s bills and, in theory, work out compromises. But the process has become “very political” in Jakows’ view, in the sense that the House and Senate leadership can simply replace members of conference committees who don’t toe the party line.
From story-telling panels in politically mixed areas of the state, to protests at the Capitol over bathroom discrimination, 603 Equality has tried to promote a dynamic agenda. It is focusing on progressive cities like Dover as well now, wanting to take nothing for granted.
Recognizing the growing risk, 603 Equality is enlisting the group Impact Boston to conduct training for trans and non-binary peopple in de-escalation/self defense tactics. The aim is to give “people who are perhaps more vulnerable or concerned for their safety more tools to be able to think about what they can do in a moment where they might be experiencing harassment or other kinds of attacks.”