NH House and Senate Advance Slate of Anti-LGBTQ Bills
Advocates Call For Governor to Reject All Bills That Would Set Back LGBTQ Rights following this week's votes and the House passing HB 10 and HB 148 last week
CONCORD, NH (March 27, 2025) — Today, the New Hampshire House voted to advance a slate of bills that would take away rights from LGBTQ+ Granite Staters, with particular harm for transgender people. Reproductive Equity Now has prioritized fighting against two of these legislative proposals: HB 377 and HB 712.
HB 377: Bans the administration of puberty-blocking medications and cross-sex hormones for transgender patients under 18 years old, even with parental consent and after consultations with medical professionals. Violations are classified as a class B felony.
HB 712: Bans all gender-affirming surgeries for transgender patients under 18 years old, even with parental consent and after consultations with medical professionals.
LGBTQ+ rights, public education, and child welfare advocates gave the following statements:
Christina Warriner, New Hampshire State Director for Reproductive Equity Now, said, “Access to health care that affirms transgender young people offers support that allows them to lead healthy lives and become their authentic selves. Decisions about one’s body, health, and future should rest with patients, their medical providers, and their loved ones – not be dictated by lawmakers. The anti-trans bills voted on today will strip young people of access to life-affirming, compassionate health care, and make our state inhospitable to the trans community, as well as the parents and families of transgender people. With attacks rising nationwide, it is incumbent on New Hampshire to work to protect LGBTQ+ youth – not disproportionately target and bully them.”
Sandi Denoncour, Executive Director of Lovering Health Center, said “Lovering Health Center provides gender affirming care to adults, many of whom started their journey before age 18. We believe them when they tell us that access to gender affirming care saved their life by allowing them to live authentically. LGBTQ+ youth, and their families, deserve access to the health care they need to be healthy, happy, and affirmed. New Hampshire’s non-discrimination laws are essential protections and there is no reasonable explanation for rolling them back with LGBTQ+ youth and their families as targets for criminalization.”
Jinelle Hall, Executive Director of Equality Health Center, said “The litany of harmful legislation being proposed to strip LGBTQ youth of freedom to be and pursue their authentic selves is beyond comprehension. Everyone - elected official or otherwise - should understand the foundational responsibility we have to support youth in their path to actualize as happy and healthy people who are worthy of evidence-based healthcare, support from their community, and autonomy of their physical selves. Equality Health Center is a proud provider of gender affirming care and HRT for adults, and compassionate behavioral healthcare for all ages and all genders."
Linds Jakows, Founder of 603 Equality, said, “Despite state representatives bringing powerful stories of transgender Granite Staters and their families to the House floor, representatives today chose to double down on discrimination and block life-saving healthcare that has been studied and proven effective for 40 years. All Granite Staters should be outraged that loving parents will be charged with felonies for accessing healthcare, a dangerous authoritarian precedent. The Senate’s passage of similar anti-LGBTQ+ bills to those the House has already passed means that Governor Kelly Ayotte has a responsibility to pledge to veto these bills immediately.”
Heidi Carrington Heath, Executive Director, NH Outright: “We are disappointed at the decisions by the majority of the House today to deny transgender youth in the Granite State access to evidence-based, rigorously vetted, best practice medical care, and the majority of the Senate to create an environment that will put LGBTQ+ youth at-risk in their neighborhood schools. LGBTQ+ youth deserve access to all of the spaces and places they need to thrive. Today’s votes put an already vulnerable group of young people at serious risk of additional harm. This is not the New Hampshire way. The Granite State values of freedom and liberty mean creating a state where all are seen, valued, and cared for. The worth and dignity of LGBTQ+ youth is not up for debate.”
Chris Erchull, Senior Staff Attorney, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), said, “The legislature’s relentless wave of attacks on the rights of LGBTQ+ Granite Staters—particularly transgender residents—is shameful. LGBTQ+ people are our friends, neighbors, and co-workers who simply want to live in peace. Legislators should be working to make life better for all the people of New Hampshire by meeting the real needs of their constituents instead of joining the Trump administration’s war on a small, vulnerable group of Americans by advancing bill after bill—including the six today—to make it impossible for transgender people people to simply live daily life. This cruelty cannot stand. GLAD Law will continue to work with our allies and use every legal tool at our disposal to ensure that all New Hampshire residents—including transgender Granite Staters—can live authentically and freely.”
Courtney Reed, Policy Advocate at the ACLU of New Hampshire, said, “Every Granite Stater deserves the freedom to control their bodies and seek the healthcare they need free from government intrusion - including LGBTQ+ and transgender young people. The slate of bills passed today in the senate would cause harm, permit discrimination, and heighten cruelty and harassment in our communities. These merciless, cruel, and endless legislative attacks against LGBTQ+ Granite Staters must be stopped.
Devan Quinn, Director of Policy at the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation, said, “Trans women are women, and trans girls are girls. Like all women and girls, they deserve to be treated fairly in all aspects of their lives including school, athletics, corrections, and all other facets of public life.”
Louise Spencer, Co-Founder, Kent Street Coalition, said, “The sheer number of bills this session calling for discriminatory treatment of LGBTQ+ people, and transgender youth in particular, is in and of itself harmful to those who are just trying to live their lives with the same expectations of privacy, freedom and dignity accorded every other Granite Stater. That a majority in both the House and Senate would vote this week to once again support bills denying our neighbors, friends, and families the equal protection of the law is a betrayal not only of what New Hampshire stands for, but more importantly, a betrayal of individuals and communities that deserve our whole-hearted support and respect.
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