New Hampshire becomes first Northeastern state to ban gender-affirming care for minors
Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a former U.S. senator who won New Hampshire's gubernatorial election in November, signed two bills Friday restricting access to transition-related care in the state, which already prohibits rare genital surgeries for minors to transition.
House Bill 377 prohibits doctors from administering puberty blockers and hormones to transgender youth starting Jan. 1. Like a handful of other, similar measures adopted by nearly all Republican-led states, New Hampshire's prohibition includes a 'grandfather clause' that allows minors already receiving care to continue doing so even after the law goes into effect.
The second bill, House Bill 712, builds on New Hampshire's existing restrictions on gender-affirming surgery. The measure, which will also take effect in January, bars adolescents younger than 18 from undergoing certain procedures when they are used to treat gender dysphoria, including facial feminization or masculinization surgery and 'transgender chest surgery.'
In a statement, Ayotte said, 'Medical decisions made at a young age can carry lifelong consequences, and these bills represent a balanced, bipartisan effort to protect children.'
The New Hampshire House approved HB 377 in June, with two Democrats, state Reps. Dale Girard and Jonah Wheeler, voting with nearly all Republicans to advance the measure. Eleven Democrats were excused from voting. New Hampshire senators approved the bill in a 16-8 party-line vote.
Wheeler joined House Republicans again in voting to pass HB 712, and 11 Democrats again were excused. The state Senate approved the measure in June in another vote along party lines.
New Hampshire state Rep. Lisa Mazur, a Republican and the prime sponsor of both bills, celebrated their approval Friday in a post on X.
'My two bills that will protect NH kids from irreversible harm were just signed into law by Gov. Ayotte. We are now the 1st state in New England the whole Northeast to do so. Go NH!!' Mazur wrote.
In June, while defending House Bill 377, Mazur pointed to a recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors. 'It is now legal and constitutional for states to regulate and or ban the use of these harmful drugs in minors,' she said.
LGBTQ rights groups immediately condemned Ayotte's signature on the bills, which they said ignore testimony from transgender youth who have benefited from gender-affirming care and statements from major medical organizations that such care for transgender adults and minors is medically necessary and can be lifesaving.
'It is heartbreaking to witness lawmakers inserting themselves into deeply personal, private conversations between families, their doctors, and their children,' Julia Hawthorne, a board member of the state LGBTQ rights group 603 Equality, wrote on Facebook.
Linds Jakows, the organization's founder, said transgender young people in New Hampshire 'are not only tangibly losing access to life-saving healthcare — but also receiving a disturbing message of rejection from their state government.'
'To youth impacted by these bills, please know: You are loved, you are worthy of respect and dignity, and there is a community here in New Hampshire and beyond that is ready to support you,' they said.
The Campaign for Southern Equality, an LGBTQ rights group that has since 2023 distributed more than $900,000 in grants to families of transgender children needing to travel out-of-state for gender-affirming care, announced on Friday that it would expand its Trans Youth Emergency Project into New Hampshire.
'Every day I speak with families of transgender youth who are worried about the future. Many are panicking, unsure of where or when they'll get the medicine that their child needs to continue leading a healthy, happy life,' said Van Bailey, a patient navigator for the program. 'These laws are cruelly thrusting families into impossible choices, and it is deeply unfair.'
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