On Friday, New Hampshire Republican Governor Chris Sununu signed legislation banning transgender child slaughter in the state. He also signed a bill banning boys claiming to be female from competing in girls’ track and field events in grades 5-12 in the Granite State.

Sununu also signed a bill that would give parents two weeks’ notice when LGBT topics will be discussed in schools and give parents the option to opt out of those classes. The governor vetoed House Bill 396, which would have allowed businesses to insist that only women use women’s restrooms, because “it attempts to solve problems that have not occurred in New Hampshire and in doing so creates unnecessary controversy.”

Ban gender reassignment surgery for minors

House Bill 619 bans the horrific and barbaric practice of “genital sex reassignment surgery” — or gender reassignment surgery — for minors. The law officially goes into effect on January 1, 2025. The governor explained in a statement:

HB 619 would ensure that life-changing, irreversible surgeries are not performed on children. This bill is aimed at protecting the health and safety of New Hampshire’s children and has received bipartisan support. There’s a reason that countries around the world — from Sweden to Norway, France to the United Kingdom — have taken steps to pause these procedures and policies. Even the Biden administration opposes these surgeries for young people, citing the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Transgender advocates from the American Civil Liberties Union and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) strongly disagreed. They argue that such surgeries are “life-saving,” and say the bill

will ban access to certain health care for transgender minors, limiting the ability of parents, transgender people, and physicians to make individual health care decisions and opening the door to further restrictions on the established standard of care medicine recognized by all major U.S. medical associations as the only evidence-based approach to addressing the physical, mental, and emotional needs of transgender youth.

Protection of female sports

Bill 1205 “requires schools to designate athletics based on sex and prohibits biological males from participating in female athletics.” The law goes into effect on August 19 of this year, in time for the new school year. The governor said:

HB 1205 ensures fairness and safety in women’s sports by maintaining integrity and competitive balance in athletic competition. With this widely supported move, New Hampshire joins nearly half of all U.S. states that have taken this measure.

Transgender advocates argue that the bill is discriminatory and will deny transgender students access to sports competitions. Supporters of the bill argue that those students would still be able to compete, but only in the category they were born into.

Teaching LGBT Issues in School

Meanwhile, House Bill 1312 amends an existing law that requires parental notification when discussing topics of human sexual reproduction. The update requires two weeks’ notice for topics that address “sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression.” It also allows parents to remove their children from such instruction if they choose.

Sununu did not comment publicly on House Bill 1312, but ahead of the vote, Republican Tim Lang of New Hampshire said, “If schools are going to teach these sensitive topics, parents should have the opportunity to review the material and make informed decisions about their child’s education.”

Opposition to the bills

Some teachers’ unions believe the bill is a form of classroom censorship.

“Let’s be clear. The passage of HB 1312 is yet another attempt to silence classroom conversations, much like the equally vague and unworkable ‘prohibited concepts’ law that was recently declared unconstitutional,” said Megan Tuttle, president of NEA-NH.

Democrats in the state are furious about the legislation. Senate Democratic Leader Donna Soucy said: “Senate Democrats know that our transgender community members are not the threat, they are the threatened, and we will not stand idly by while they are targeted with cruel legislation.”

But Sununu said the actions he took were “fair, balanced and free from political considerations.”