CONCORD – Protesters stood outside of the Legislative Office Building in Concord to oppose the recently amended bill prohibiting gender transition procedures for minors.
They held signs that read, “Live Free means Trans Rights” and “Don’t ban medically necessary care.”
Nancy Brennan, a resident of Weare, said she hoped that the bill wouldn’t pass, but she knew it would be close with a narrowly divided House. Those divisions became clear as discussions heated up inside Monday morning’s committee meeting.
The Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs committee convened to discuss several amended bills that were retained in the previous House of Representatives session, including HB 619, which details restrictions on gender affirmation procedures for minors, and sparked debate along party lines about the validity of the bill.
While the executive session not only saw intense debate about the proposed legislation involving gender-affirming surgeries, but also discussions about two other bills that would streamline changes to birth certificates to reflect gender identity and offer protections for recipients of gender-affirming health and mental health care.
The committee’s votes for all three bills ended in ties, leaving the representatives to provide no recommendation for the passage of the bills when they are heard again when the House of Representatives convenes on Jan. 4.
The amended bill replaces the previous version introduced in January, which included broader language on the “system of gender dysphoria care for minors.” It would have entirely prohibited any gender affirming care for minors, denied the teaching of nonbinary pronouns in public schools, and required that, “All public schools in kindergarten through grade 12 in New Hampshire shall refer to children by the name and gender that they are enrolled as,” according to the original document.
The current amended bill narrows the language to only prohibit “genital gender reassignment surgery” to anyone under 18.
After the amended bill was introduced in an Oct. 25 hearing, the LGBTQ+ community throughout New Hampshire reacted with frustration and fear for young people exploring their gender identities and expression.
Linds Jakows, co-founder of the LGBTQ+ organization 603 Equality, testified at the initial hearing against the bill. They believed the legislation was a political maneuver.
“New Hampshire doesn’t want politicians telling people what to do with their own bodies and medical care,” Jakows said. “I think they’re trying to narrow it to get a narrower win to get this bill through.”
Rep. Gerri Cannon, D-Somersworth, who publicly identifies as a transgender woman, spoke up against the bill at the session.
“I don’t believe this document is needed,” she said. “I believe this document is in search of a problem in New Hampshire.”
The argument of the co-sponsors of the bill, which included committee members Rep. Leah Cushman, R-Weare, vice chair of the committee Rep. Erica Layon, R-Derry, and Rep. Lisa Mazur, R-Hillsborough 44, was that this amended bill would prohibit uninformed parents from going through with treatment for their children who may regret it.
Layon argued there was not enough data about the impacts of gender-affirming care on minors, nor to what extent it was happening in New Hampshire, to properly inform parents. She and other representatives claimed that these parents were being emotionally coerced into consenting to gender-affirming care because of the mental health problem among transgender youth.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard the parents being told, ‘Would you rather have a dead son or a live daughter?’” Layon said. She added she didn’t want to outright ban gender-affirming care, but rather have young transgender individuals wait until they are 18.
Rep. Lucy Weber, D-Walpole, quickly countered Layon’s point. “If we enact prohibition there will be no more data, there will be nothing to evaluate,” Weber said. “That seems like a self-fulfilled prophecy.”
“The way I come down on this is that the folks with lived experience in this area have asked for this amendment not to be passed,” Weber added.
Many of the Democrats on the committee commended the rewriting of the bill to narrow the scope from the first version, including Rep. Joe Schapiro, D-Keene, who called the original bill “overtly discriminatory towards a group of people.”
But Schapiro was not convinced on the amendment.
“It’s just conjecture to say that parents are basically being blackmailed into their children receiving care because they’re being told by medical professionals that their children will commit suicide otherwise,” Schapiro said.
Schapiro and other state representatives against the bill claimed that the surgeries this legislation would ban are not happening in New Hampshire to begin with.
“Not only is it interfering with the patient-physician relationship and legislating medical care, but it also feels discriminatory to me because we’re picking this one group to put limitations on,” Schapiro added
Rep. Seth King, R-Whitefield, made it clear that he supported the original bill before the amended changes, while still supporting the current version.
“There is a moral stance being taken here,” King said. “What is being done to children around the country is wrong.”
“Imagine when there is teacher pressure, Hollywood pressure, parental pressure, to do something that these children are going to later grow up to absolutely regret,” King continued. “They’re going to have a lot of resentment for everyone pushing them into this.”
Contrary to what others were saying, Rep. Mazur did believe these gender-affirming surgeries were happening in the state. Mazur cited Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Elliott Hospital’s websites as confirming that they provide surgeries for transgender individuals.
“This is evidence that this is being done in NH,” Mazur said. “We need to take a step back and do more research and find out what’s really happening.”
“This is not an attack on the LGBTQ community,” Mazur added. “This is taking one step and trying to protect the children until they are adults and able to make the decision.”