The New Hampshire State Senate last week voted along party lines to pass legislation that effectively bans transgender students in grades 5–12 from participating in school sports. The bill now heads to Gov. Sununu’s desk.
Reports the Boston Globe:
The legislation’s fate is uncertain. Sununu, a Republican, has said he doesn’t believe “biological boys” should be competing in girls’ sports. But he has also declined to take a clear-cut stance for or against particular bills on this topic, noting that legislation is frequently multi-faceted and amended. His spokespeople did not immediately respond Thursday afternoon to a request for comment.
Sununu signed laws in 2018 and 2019 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and specifically applied those protections to New Hampshire schools — so opponents of this newly passed bill have expressed optimism that he could veto it.
“Governor Sununu has been known at times to do the right thing when confronted with hard decisions,” said Chris Erchull, an attorney with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders. Erchull called on Sununu to follow the lead of Republican governors like Mike DeWine of Ohio and Spencer Cox of Utah, who have vetoed anti-trans legislation in their states.
Reports Boston.com:
The Republican-led Senate voted 13-10 along party lines Thursday in favor of a bill that would require schools to designate all teams as either girls, boys or coed, with eligibility determined based on students’ birth certificates.
Supporters of the legislation said they wanted to protect girls from being injured by larger and stronger transgender athletes.
“When we talk about fairness and rights, we can’t cover every circumstance. And so in a very narrow way that I think to most of us is very clear, biological boys have an advantage over biological girls,” said Senate President Jeb Bradley, a Republican from Wolfeboro. “We’ll never be able to legislate total fairness. But what we can’t do is create rights for one at the expense of another.” …
Democrats who opposed the bill that passed Thursday said it was based on fear mongering. Sen. Debra Altschiller, a Democrat from Stratham, said there are only five transgender girls in New Hampshire who are athletes.
“Those five girls are not a threat. They are the threatened,” she said. “While this gesture of protection may seem valiant, we say no thank you. If you really want to protect girls, protect the marginalized transgender girls.”
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu has not indicated his position on the bill, and his spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Read the complete Boston.com story here.
Read the complete Boston Globe story here.
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