New Hampshire Governor Signs Bill Banning Transgender Girls from Women’s Sports – JURIST

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed a bill Friday that bans transgender people from participating in school sports teams that align with their gender identity, and another bill banning gender reassignment surgery on minors.

Sununu also vetoed a bill that would have allowed some businesses and government agencies to restrict restroom access to people based on their biological sex.

New Hampshire HB 1205 requires schools to use a student’s biological sex at birth when determining eligibility for participation in youth sports. Schools would be required to use a birth certificate “issued on or about the time of the student’s birth.” Students who present birth certificates that do not list the student’s sex would be required to provide other proof of their biological sex at the time of birth at their own expense. The law leaves designated coeducational sports and activities untouched, but creates a cause of action for students who are “deprived of an athletic opportunity or have suffered … direct or indirect harm as a result of a school knowingly violating (the law).” The law applies to sports in grades 5 through 12.

The second bill, HB619, would ban gender reassignment surgeries for minors, but would leave exceptions for reconstructive or excisional surgeries to address “deformity, malignancy, injury, or physical disease,” as well as male circumcision.

The bill Sununu vetoed, HB 396, would have rolled back protections enacted in 2018 that specifically targeted discrimination based on biological sex. In the veto explanation, Sununu wrote:

In 2018, Republicans and Democrats passed legislation to prevent discrimination, because I said then that it was unacceptable and it violates the Live Free or Die Spirit of New Hampshire. That remains true today. The challenge with HB 396 is that in some cases it attempts to solve problems that have not occurred in New Hampshire, and in doing so it creates unnecessary discord.

Civil rights groups GLAD and the ACLU condemned HB1205 and HB619 as unconstitutional and vowed to oppose the bills’ introduction.

Transgender rights laws vary widely across the U.S. For example, Texas has a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, while California recently passed a law that prohibits schools from informing parents if their children choose to change their pronouns.