New Hampshire lawmakers pass anti-trans bills as 150 such bills are filed nationwide

The Republican-led New Hampshire House of Representatives recently passed a bill to ban gender-affirming surgeries for minors. The bill is filled with right-wing talking points, and it’s expected to pass the state’s Republican-led Senate.

House Republicans also passed House Bill 396, which would require people to be sorted into sports competitions, public restrooms, and detainment facilities “based on biological sex” assigned at birth. It’s unclear whether Gov. Chris Sununu (R) will sign either bill into law. But the bills are just two of 125 anti-trans bills that have already been filed this year across the country, far surpassing the 50 bills filed at this time in 2023, according to journalist Erin Reed.

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New Hampshire’s H.B. 619 (H.B. 619) would prohibit physicians from conducting genital transition-related surgeries on minors, even though such surgeries are not conducted on minors. The bill would also prevent medical providers from referring patients to out-of-state facilities that offer such procedures.

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Twelve Democrats voted with Republicans to pass the bill in a 199-175 vote on Thursday morning. Two Republicans voted against the bill. House Republicans also passed House Bill 396, which would require people to be sorted into sports competitions, public restrooms, and detainment facilities “based on biological sex” assigned at birth.

The bill’s text claims that parents are “coerced” into allowing their children to access gender-affirming care because of the high rate of suicide among trans teens who aren’t supported by their families: “Adolescent genital gender reassignment surgery generally lacks both adequate information for informed consent and involves a high risk of coercion for parental consent when parents believe that they are faced with a choice between their child committing suicide or consenting to their child’s genital gender reassignment surgeries.”

This claim echoes false right-wing talking points about medical professionals pressuring parents into consenting to irreversible surgeries for their children. The bill’s text also claims there’s a lack of data from high-quality clinical trials on outcomes for puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy, even though these reversible medications have been used for decades for various medical conditions.

Additionally, it claims that gender-affirming surgeries don’t lessen suicidal feelings in trans youth and may result in a “significant increase” in suicides and psychiatric hospitalizations. This right-wing claim contradicts findings from the American Psychiatric Association, the National Institutes of Health, and Harvard’s School of Public Health.

Opponents of the bill say that H.B. 619 sets a precedent for politicians to interfere in personal medical decisions made between parents and children. If Gov. Sununu signs the bill, New Hampshire would become the 21st state to enact such a ban, according to U.S. News and World Report.

New Hampshire’s bills are just two of the 125 transphobic bills already submitted in state legislatures across the nation this year. The number far outpaces the 50 transphobic that had been submitted in state legislatures by this time in 2023.

The bills increasingly affect trans adults, including a South Carolina bill to ban Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care for people up to age 26, bills in Missouri and Ohio to ban trans adults from using public bathrooms, and a Florida bill that would prohibit any companies contracted with the government from mentioning LGBTQ+ issues in the workplace; something that would make it impossible for queer advocacy organizations to operate in the state.

The 150 bills also include 11 book bans, ten obscenity laws that could suppress or ban LGBTQ+ content online, nine trans sports bans, six drag bans, and four bans on government recognition of trans individuals altogether.

“This year’s anti-trans legislative surge resembles the second wave of a tsunami, leaving little time for recovery from the initial impact,” Reed wrote. “States are now revisiting anti-trans bills that failed in their own borders but succeeded elsewhere, effectively borrowing legislation from one another to enact the full gambit of discriminatory laws.”