Advocacy You Can Do Today
Interested to see what bills have activity this week? Check out our new LGBTQIA+ Policy Watch page to stay informed.
STOP the Discriminatory Bathroom and Locker Room Bans
From 6 to 2 - we’ve defeated 4 bathroom and locker room bans this year, but there is still more work to do! There are two nearly identical pieces of legislation headed to the Governor’s desk that seek to restrict access to public life for the trans community. Let's remind Governor Kelly Ayotte’s that as recently as February, she's vetoed similar legislation. These bills, seek to legalize discrimination for bathrooms, locker rooms, sports, and prisons on the basis of "biological sex" as defined as only "male" and "female,” completely erasing the scientific reality of intersex individuals. These discriminatory policies have no place in NH, and create real world privacy and safety concerns for all Granite Staters.
The Bills We’re Trying to Stop:
SB459Current Status: Inexpedient to Legislate - DEAD
HB 1447Current Status: TABLED
HB 1299Current Status: TABLED
HB1217Current Status: TABLED
SB552 Current Status: PASSED BOTH HOUSES AS WRITTEN - HEADED TO THE GOVERNOR
HB1442 Current Status: PASSSED WITH AMENDMENT - AND CONFIRMED IN COMMITTEE OF CONFERENCE - HEADED TO THE GOVERNOR
Why this matters:
Legislation like this is divisive and discriminatory. These kinds of identity politics are being prioritized over solving real issues facing Granite Staters. Our trans community is being unfairly targeted and singled out by a vocal political minority who wants to sow fear in our state. Trans people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and should be allowed to participate fully in public life.
This legislation makes us all less safe. Safety is important to all of us, and that’s why there are already laws to protect against harassment, and safeguard folks for safety and privacy concerns. Targeting a group of our population on the basis of how they publicly present creates situations that make us all less safe to participate in public life. It will lead to the policing of women’s bodies and presentations, as we saw recently with the Liberty Hotel incident. It creates an expectation that women must present a certain way in order to be “read” as female and gain access to what these bills designate as “private spaces.” Enforcement of these bills creates privacy and safety concerns for all.
Legislation like this is redundant and unenforceable. There are already safety and privacy laws meant to protect all people. We don’t need bathroom bans to keep us safe, and we don’t need legislators trying to relitigate the same failed and unenforceable policies again and again. We’ve already seen in other states that these types of bans are widely unenforceable, and we’ve seen in our own state two different Republican governors say NO to bathroom bans and the attempt to segregate spaces on the basis of a middle-school understanding of biology.
Current Actions:
Call Governor Ayotte at (603) 271-2121 and tell her to VETO all discriminatory bathroom and locker room bans
Mail Governor Ayotte at the address below and tell her to VETO all discriminatory bathroom and locker room bans
Office of the Governor
State House
107 North Main Street
Concord, NH 03301
Use the tool below to email Governor Ayotte and tell her to VETO all discriminatory bathroom and locker room bans
Stop SCHOOL CENSORSHIP
SB434
We define SB434 as a school censorship bill and an anti-free speech bill. This bill would allow a single person within a school district to challenge items and have them removed for the entire district. Despite mechanisms already being in place for parents to prohibit their child from accessing content and materials that they deem inappropriate, this would empower a single person to remove materials for all students - effectively censoring materials district-wide. It’s important that we trust educators to build inclusive and thoughtful classrooms where students can critically engage with a variety of age-appropriate materials, and not create easy mechanisms for censorship.
Take action to tell the Governor to veto this and any other school censorship bill!
National Advocacy
Congress is considering H.R. 2616, a bill that would require schools to disclose a student's identity to their legal guardians and obtain their consent before providing transgender and nonbinary students with accommodations they are entitled to under federal law, such as access to appropriate bathrooms or being called by their chosen name and pronouns. Policies like this risk student safety and undermine safe learning environments.
Policies like this can have serious consequences for transgender students. Many young people rely on school as a safe space and may not feel safe sharing personal information at home. Requiring disclosure in order to access their rights removes that safety and exposes students to potential harm. Ultimately, many students will face the impossible choice of being themselves at school or safe at home.
Moreover, the bill would prohibit educators from discussing or advancing so-called “gender ideology” in elementary and middle schools, depriving students of a well-rounded education, threatening free speech, and stifling academic freedom. Such a prohibition will all but erase transgender students from the classroom, exacerbating already dire levels of harassment and discrimination against these vulnerable kids.
This bill represents federal overreach into local education decisions and could lead to broader censorship and restrictions in classrooms. Educators should be able to support students, not be forced into roles that compromise their ability to keep students safe.
Act now and tell your Representative to vote no on H.R. 2616.
On April 28, the Trump administration announced a proposal to rescind the Equal Access Rule (EAR), which guarantees equal access to programs and services funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status. We're fighting back!
The Equal Access Rule benefits all people seeking access to housing and homeless services, but its impact is vital for members of the Trans community seeking the services of homeless shelters. As part of their campaign against the trans community and fair housing, Trump officials are proposing to eliminate the EAR and replace it with a new rule which would force recipients of HUD-funding to discriminate against the trans community.
The EAR was originally issued over ten years ago to ensure family members, such as fathers, teenage boys, and grandparents could access the same shelter as their family. It was updated to address barriers faced by transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming persons when accessing single-sex facilities. The EAR protects universal access to HUD resources, whether it’s keeping a family at a shelter united with their teenage son or protecting access to life-saving resources for a transgender person.
Instead of allowing providers to care for those in need, the new rule would force providers to turn away members of the trans community who do not follow narrow definitions of gender. Under the Trump administration's proposal, members of the trans community who are experiencing homelessness would have to risk their lives in shelters that are not safe for them, on streets that do not welcome them, or with people who might further isolate them from reaching out for support.
In the continued administrative attack against transgender people, the FCC has asked for comment on whether the TV Oversight Management Board (TVOMB) should create new TV ratings to alert viewers to “transgender and gender non-binary programming” and “the discussion or promotion of gender identity themes.”
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is targeting LGBTQ stories. They are trying to control what you see on television. This government overreach is dangerous to the existence of an independent and free media.
And the Public Notice does not state how a change in TV ratings will impact gay, lesbian, and bisexual characters and stories on TV. Applying warning labels to programs with transgender and nonbinary characters and stories incorrectly equates them to programming with coarse and crude language, sexual situations, or violence.
This makes life harder for LGBTQ Americans. It sends a message that the FCC can pressure the TVOMB to add even more ratings that stigmatize other diverse groups.
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