NH 2026 Legislative Season

HB1165 - relative to gender designation on state-issued identification.

We define HB1165 as a far-reaching anti-trans piece of legislation, designed to make it quantifiably harder for trans individuals to vote, drive, and engage in public life. This bill removes the "X" designation on NH Drivers Licenses and identification cards. This would create roadblocks for trans individuals seeking employment, healthcare, or engaging in the right to vote. It also eliminates privacy protections from folks who do not wish to identify their sex or gender identity on state-issued ID. 

❌❌❌❌ This bill works in opposition to four of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments, economic safety, comprehensive and accessible healthcare and right to privacy. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/hb1165

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

HB1564 - removing all references of gender identity in New Hampshire statutes.

We define HB1564 as a far-reaching anti-trans piece of legislation, This bill removes all references of "gender identity" from NH law. This would remove “gender identity” as a protected class for employment, housing, and all areas of life. 

❌❌❌❌This bill works in opposition to four of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments, economic safety, comprehensive and accessible healthcare and right to privacy. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/hb1564

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

HB1442 -  limiting the use of certain facilities on the basis of sex and redefining the term "gender identity."

We defined HB1442 as an Anti-Trans Bathroom Ban. This bill seeks to restrict access to “private spaces” on the basis of what the bill sponsor defines as “biological sex” like many of the other proposed bathroom and locker room bans this legislative season. One important thing to note about HB1442 is that it would criminally charges trans bathroom users with "willful trespass" for using a bathroom that doesn’t align with the sex designated on their birth certificate. (Note: an amendment removed the “willful trespass” language).Additionally, the bill sponsor also singled out trans women, and references the SRY gene as  a way to scientifically define sex to a binary, despite the vast number of variations to biological sex that exist. This bill is another example of the state legislature attempting to police the movements of trans people in New Hampshire, despite two separate Governors vetoing three similar bills already. The prime sponsor proposed a floor amendment that does nothing to address concerns brought forth in public testimony and committee hearings. 

❌❌❌This bill works in opposition to three of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments, economic safety and right to privacy. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/hb1442

▶️This bill is still in play, and has the potential to become law. 

SB268 - permitting classification of individuals based on biological sex under certain limited circumstances.

We defined SB268 as an Anti-Trans Bathroom Ban. This bill seeks to restrict access to “private spaces” on the basis of what the bill sponsor defines as “biological sex.” Retained from last year, this bill legalizes discrimination for bathrooms, locker rooms, sports, and prisons.  Biological sex is not defined, nor are enforcement mechanisms. 

❌❌❌This bill works in opposition to three of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments, economic safety and right to privacy. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/sb268

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

SB552 - permitting classification of individuals based on biological sex under certain limited circumstances.

We define SB552 as an anti-trans bathroom & sports ban and prison segregation bill. SB 552 is a multi-faceted bill that limits access for trans folks in public restrooms, in sports settings, and designates that “biological sex” must be the determining factor in prison placement. This bill sponsor defines “biological sex” like many of the other proposed bathroom and locker room bans this legislative season on a binary, despite the vast number of variations to biological sex that exist. This bill is another example of the state legislature attempting to police the movements of trans people in New Hampshire, despite two separate Governors vetoing three similar bills already. 

❌❌❌This bill works in opposition to three of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments, economic safety and right to privacy. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/sb552

▶️This bill is still in play, and has the potential to become law. 

HB1217 - permitting classification of individuals based on biological sex under certain limited circumstances.

We defined HB1217 as an Anti-Trans Bathroom Ban. This bill seeks to restrict access to “multi-user lavatories” on the basis of what the bill sponsor defines as “biological sex” like many of the other proposed bathroom and locker room bans this legislative season. This bill is another example of the state legislature attempting to police the movements of trans people in New Hampshire, despite two separate Governors vetoing three similar bills already. 

❌❌❌This bill works in opposition to three of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments, economic safety and right to privacy. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/hb1217

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

HB1299 - permitting classification of individuals based on biological sex under certain limited circumstances and establishing that certain biological sex distinctions do not qualify as discrimination.

We define HB1299 as an anti-trans bathroom & sports ban and prison segregation bill. HB 1299 is a multi-faceted bill that limits access for trans folks in public restrooms, in sports settings, and designates that “biological sex” must be the determining factor in prison placement. This bill sponsor defines “biological sex” like many of the other proposed bathroom and locker room bans this legislative season on a binary, despite the vast number of variations to biological sex that exist. This bill is another example of the state legislature attempting to police the movements of trans people in New Hampshire, despite two separate Governors vetoing three similar bills already. 

❌❌❌This bill works in opposition to three of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments, economic safety and right to privacy. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/hb1299

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

HB1447 - restricting the use of certain public and private facilities on the basis of sex and establishing that such restriction does not qualify as discrimination.

We defined HB1447 as an Anti-Trans Bathroom Ban. This bill seeks to restrict access to “private spaces” on the basis of what the bill sponsor defines as “biological sex” like many of the other proposed bathroom and locker room bans this legislative season. Additionally, the bill sponsor also singled out trans women, and references the SRY gene as  a way to scientifically define sex to a binary, despite the vast number of variations to biological sex that exist. This bill is another example of the state legislature attempting to police the movements of trans people in New Hampshire, despite two separate Governors vetoing three similar bills already. 

❌❌❌This bill works in opposition to three of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments, economic safety and right to privacy. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/hb1447

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

SB459 - relative to biological sex in student athletics and prisons.

We define SB459 as an anti-trans locker room & sports ban and prison segregation bill. SB 459 is a multi-faceted bill that limits access for trans folks in locker restrooms, in sports settings, and designates that “biological sex” must be the determining factor in prison placement. This bill sponsor defines “biological sex” like many of the other proposed bathroom and locker room bans this legislative season on a binary, despite the fast number of variations to biological sex that exist. This bill is another example of the state legislature attempting to police the movements of trans people in New Hampshire, despite two separate Governors vetoing three similar bills already. 

❌❌❌This bill works in opposition to three of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments, economic safety and right to privacy. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/sb459

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

SB211 - relative to biological sex in student athletics.

We define SB211 as an anti-trans sports ban. Retained from last year, this bill would extend discrimination in sports to higher education. Because college athletics are often a pathway to scholarship money, and facilitate professional connections for young adults, we see this as detrimental to the economic safety of young trans individuals. 

❌❌❌This bill works in opposition to three of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments, economic safety and right to privacy. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/sb211

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

SB430 - relative to mandatory disclosure by school district employees to parents and legal guardians.

We define SB430 as a forced outing bill. This bill expands upon the "forced outing" or mandatory disclosure of any information about public school students to their parents. Last year's HB10, the "parental bill of rights," created a situation where teachers would be forced to out LGBTQIA students.  This bill strengthens that dynamic and inflicts strict penalties against educators who don’t comply. It does provide a very weak provision if educators feel the student is at risk - but risk is incredibly difficult to gauge on matters of identity and home life. This bill would jeopardize the safety of LGBTQIA+ students who do not live in an affirming home, and remove the likelihood that students would be able to build foundational trust with safe adults in their lives in all areas by turning educators into a tool of surveillance. 

❌❌This bill works in opposition to two of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments, and right to privacy. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/sb430

▶️This bill is still in play, and has the potential to become law. 

SB464 - “relative to civil rights enforcement.”

We define SB464 as a civil rights enforcement rollback. This bill changes the standard for civil rights enforcement, adding language that creates a new threshold of motivation for those committing civil rights infringements. That threshold in turn creates an additional burden on prosecutors pursuing action against those who have committed civil rights offenses. This weakens the ability to apply civil rights protections and enforcement within the state. The legal ramifications of changing this one sentence in existing state statute will have wide-sweeping implications for those seeking justice within one of the protected classes outlined in existing law. 

❌❌This bill works in opposition to two of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments and economic safety. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/sb464

▶️This bill is still in play, and has the potential to become law. 

HB1376 - relative to a parent's ability to raise their child in a manner consistent with the child's biological sex.

We define HB1376 as an anti-affirming environment bill, which would force trans or gender diverse youths to disclose their gender identity to state officials in order to receive safe placements. This bill provides legal justification for parents to raise their trans children against the child's intended gender. This is especially important when considering placements for children in foster care. The sponsor of the bill spoke to their intentions during public testimony that they didn’t want a potential parent’s views on gender “ideologies” to preclude them from being able to foster a child. As we’ve seen with other pieces of legislation, “gender ideologies” is a catch-all term utilized to other trans folks and assign their gender as a fictitious aspect of belief, and not a core part of their identity. 

❌❌This bill works in opposition to two of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments and right to privacy. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/hb1376

▶️This bill is still in play, and has the potential to become law. 

HB1788 - holding state contracts with DEI provisions to be void as a matter of law and establishing a right of action for citizens where public entities or state agencies engage with contracts with DEI provisions.

HB 1788 is a bill that seeks to immediately terminate all contracts held by state agencies, municipalities, and schools with any organization that references any of their services. This bill would be in contradiction with federal regulations surrounding Medicare and Medicaid (nursing homes and healthcare providers often are required to have staff take training to understand religious differences in care) and school professional development (many PD training required by educators must include elements that empower teachers to meet diverse student populations).  

❌❌This bill works in opposition to two of our policy platform pillars: affirming environments and economic safety. 

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/hb1788

▶️This bill is still in play, and has the potential to become law. 

HB1792 - prohibiting school districts and personnel from the instruction of critical race theory and LGBTQ+ ideologies in schools as well as establishing a private right of action for violations.

We define HB1792 as a School Censorship, Anti-DEI, Anti-LGBTQIA+ bill. Referred to by the sponsor as the “Charlie Act” and named after Charlie Kirk, HB 1792 is designed to restrict classroom instruction and topics to what the sponsor designates as “neutral” and “patriotic.” The sponsor singles out “gender ideology” and “leftist ideology” as well as a variety of pedogeological categories, specific texts and specific authors, to be excluded from public k-12 classrooms. Despite a similar law from last year currently being held up in NH courts and costing the state tens of thousands of dollars,  this bill seeks to further restrict topics discussed and acknowledged in classrooms in both incredibly specific and incredibly vague ways. 

❌❌This bill works in opposition to two of our policy platform pillars: Affirming Environments and Economic Safety.

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/hb1792

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

SB434 - relative to regulation of public school materials.

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. 

❌❌This bill works in opposition to two of our policy platform pillars: Affirming Environments and Economic Safety.

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/sb434

▶️This bill is still in play, and has the potential to become law. 

SB431 - relative to violations of the prohibition on teaching discrimination.

We define SB431 as a school censorship bill. This bill adds intent as a qualifier for the law pertaining to the prohibitions on teaching public school students about discrimination. 

❌❌This bill works in opposition to two of our policy platform pillars: Affirming Environments and Economic Safety.

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/sb431

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

HB1778 - relative to prohibiting the use of personal identity ideology in public school instruction and policies.

We define HB1788 as a school censorship bill. This bill prohibits teaching public school students about "Personal Identity Ideology" including DEI, race, color, biological sex, sexual orientation, religion or gender identity. 

❌❌This bill works in opposition to two of our policy platform pillars: Affirming Environments and Economic Safety.

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/hb1778

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

SB33 - relative to the regulation of public school materials.

We define SB33 as a school censorship bill. Retained from last year, this bill enables small groups of citizens to cause "harmful" materials to be removed from public schools.

❌❌This bill works in opposition to two of our policy platform pillars: Affirming Environments and Economic Safety.

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/sb33

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

HB1356 - relative to the statute of limitations for bringing a private right of action for violation of the statute prohibiting medical procedures and treatments intended to alter a minor's gender.

We define HB1356 as an attack on trans healthcare. This bill extends the statute of limitations for gender surgery on a minor to 10 years after majority, causing a chilling effect on accepted medical practice. Extending the statute of limitations means that folks who detransition (only approximately 0.2% of folks) have a longer timeline to sue doctors and healthcare providers for administering medical procedures that aligned with patient desire, best practices, and the best medical knowledge available. Extending the statute of limitations is designed to scare healthcare providers into not offering trans-specific healthcare, further reducing access to providers and treatments in the state. 

❌This bill works in opposition to one of our policy platform pillars: Comprehensive and Accessible Healthcare.

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/hb1356

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

HB1132 - prohibiting the display of certain flags in public schools and public charter schools and establishing penalties for the display of prohibited flags.

We define HB1132 as a school censorship and anti-free speech bill. This bill only allows official flags in school buildings, effectively banning pride flags. Also important to note - this bill additionally bans flags that are not state, United States, or school-specific. This means no flags that honor a student’s heritage, celebrate a cherished sports team, or reference someone’s favorite charity. 

❌This bill works in opposition to one of our policy platform pillars: Affirming Environments.

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/hb1132

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.

HB1615- permitting consenting adults to enter into contract-based marriage agreements as an alternative to the requirement of a marriage license.

We define HB1615 as an anti-marriage equality bill. Designed to look innocuous, HB1615 creates a dangerous precedent in creating a second-class alternative to marriage in preparation for a proposed federal roll-back on marriage equality. 

❌This bill works in opposition to one of our policy platform pillars: Affirming Environments.

📜To see the current status of this bill, and all associated records, visit: https://603equality.org/news-updates/hb1615

🪦This bill is defeated, and unless re-introduced during the next legislative session, will not become law.