By a narrow margin — with three Republicans voting with the Democrats in an attempt to block it — a Republican-backed bill passed the New Hampshire House of Representatives that would mandate school officials to inform parents if their children are questioning their sexuality or gender identity at school, if the parents ask them. The policy would, however, still allow exceptions in cases where such disclosures could result in “abuse, abandonment or neglect,” according to a report in the Boston Globe.
Further, the bill would allow parents to opt their children out of instruction about sexual orientation and gender identification.
The legislation now heads to the state’s Senate.
Reports the Boston Globe:
Republican lawmakers who see parental rights as a priority found a new strategy in 2024: breaking the sprawling proposal into smaller, discrete parts, to see which ones garner the political support needed to become law. That tactic has worked in the past with housing, a less polarizing issue, and now, Republicans are finding some success when it comes to parental notification and school disclosure policies.
Democrats criticized the bill that passed Thursday, which they called unnecessary, divisive, and dangerous. They believe the bill pushes schools toward forcing teachers to out students to their parents without regard to the best interests of the child. They also said that students need to have a trusted adult at school in whom they can confide, and that this measure erodes educators’ ability to provide that.
“This bill would cause censoring in health education classes and in all other instruction and curriculum that reference LGBTQ people,” said Representative Hope Damon, a Sunapee Democrat.
“It could apply to books assigned in history class on women achieving the right to vote, on marriage equality, on the Stonewall uprising, and so much more,” she said.
The bill’s prime sponsor, Kristine Perez, a Londonderry Republican, testified in February that indeed the bill is intended to apply to courses beyond health education, like English, language arts, and art, if they include discussion of human sexuality, gender, and gender identity. Perez said teachers would still be allowed to answer questions or share “incidental information” under the bill.
“For example, if I was a teacher and someone asked me if I was married, I certainly could say I was married,” she said.
Some in the LGBTQ+ community said the bill will chill education around gender and gender identity. Busy teachers can’t always plan their lessons two weeks ahead of time, some warned, and they fear it would be hard for teachers to comply with the two-week notice requirement, and that it could lead to confusion and fear about what they’re allowed to teach. The concern is that the measure would lead to the exclusion of LGBTQ+ issues from the classroom.
“I think teachers would be busy and would probably just skip any teaching that involved LGBTQ+ issues,” said Iris Turmelle, a 14-year-old trans girl from Pembroke. “That would leave me and the rest of the LGBTQ+ student body completely left out and isolated from our entire education. . . . This would mean no representation of LGBTQ+ anywhere in my education.”
Read the complete Boston Globe story here.
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