Bill allowing trans people to be kept out of bathrooms, locker rooms heads to Ayotte's desk
Supporters of transgender rights gather at the Legislative Office Building in Concord on Feb. 19, 2025. (Photo by William Skipworth/New Hampshire Bulletin)
A bill that would eliminate certain transgender protections established by a 2018 anti-discrimination law in New Hampshire was approved by the state Senate Thursday and now heads to Gov. Kelly Ayotte's desk.
If it becomes law, House Bill 148, which was sponsored by Wilton Republican Rep. Jim Kofalt, will allow businesses and organizations in New Hampshire to classify certain services, such as locker rooms and restrooms, by biological sex. It would also permit schools and organized sports teams in the state to keep transgender athletes off teams that are consistent with their gender identity. It would allow prisons, mental health facilities, and juvenile detention centers to place transgender people with members of their at-birth sex even if they ask to be placed according to the gender they identify with. The bill doesn't require any of these things, but it allows whoever owns the restrooms, administers the sports teams, or runs the prison to do so without facing discrimination charges. This reverses parts of 2018's Law Against Discrimination, which was enacted to protect people from discrimination on the basis of 'age, sex, gender identity, race, creed, color, marital status, familial status, physical or mental disability, or national origin.'
The Senate passed the bill, 16-8, along party lines Thursday, with all Republicans voting yes and all Democrats voting no. The House passed the legislation, 201-166, in March. Only two Democratic House members, Reps. Jonah Wheeler and Peter Leishman, both of Peterborough, voted in favor.
Ayotte will now have the option to sign the bill into law, veto it, or allow it to become law without her signature. Her predecessor, former Gov. Chris Sununu, was given the same options in 2024 when the House and Senate approved House Bill 396. This year's bill, HB 148, is a word-for-word copy of last year's HB 396. Sununu ultimately vetoed the bill, calling it 'unacceptable,' and saying it 'runs contrary to New Hampshire's Live Free or Die spirit' and 'seeks to solve problems that have not presented themselves,' per his veto message.
LGBTQ+ rights supporters sang outside the State House restrooms in protest of the bill during the Senate session Thursday.
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