House committee advances bill rolling back trans protections
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 seeking to roll back protections for trans people in New Hampshire got the go-ahead from the state House Judiciary Committee Monday.
The committee voted, 10-8, along party lines on Monday to recommend the entire New Hampshire House of Representatives pass House Bill 148.
If signed into law, HB 148, which was sponsored by Wilton Republican Rep. Jim Kofalt, would allow transgender people in New Hampshire to be banned from using locker rooms or restrooms matching their gender identity. The bill would also allow schools and organized sports in the state to keep transgender athletes off sports teams consistent with their gender identity. It would also allow people to be forcibly placed in prisons, mental health facilities, or juvenile detention centers with members of their at-birth sex. The bill doesn't go so far as to require transgender people be banned from or forced into these places. Rather, it allows whoever owns the restrooms, administers the sports teams, or runs the prison to do so without facing discrimination charges.
In previous debates over the bill, a point of contention has been that the bill does not define biological sex.
At a meeting over the bill in Concord ahead of the vote, Rep. Eric Turer, a Brentwood Democrat, called it 'legislative malpractice' to introduce a bill that doesn't actually define the key terminology at question. He provided examples for how this bill might cause issues.
'The thing this bill intends to solve seems like it will almost be caused by this bill,' he said, explaining that it could allow a trans boy, who has transitioned and now has male hormones, to be playing on a girls team against their will.
Rep. Katy Peternel, a Wolfeboro Republican, attempted to combat this notion by pointing to a recent release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In the release, the department, under President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., defined female as 'a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing eggs' and male as 'a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing sperm.'
If passed, HB 148 would cut back on some of the legal protections put in place years ago. The 2018 Law Against Discrimination prohibited discrimination on the basis of age, sex, gender identity, race, creed, color, marital status, familial status, physical or mental disability, or national origin. And it created a Commission on Human Rights to ensure this discrimination doesn't occur.
If the bill is passed by the House, it will still need approval from the Senate and Gov. Kelly Ayotte to become law.
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