New Hampshire Governor signs anti-trans bills into law. What else is new?
Chris Sununu signs three anti-trans bills into law. What does this increasing legislation against trans people mean for the near and far future?
by Mira Lazine
A little over a week ago, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R) signed into law three anti-trans bills while vetoing a singular anti-trans bill in the process. Advocacy organizations have been quick to condemn this.
Linds Jakows, founder of NH LGBTQ+ rights organization 603 Equality, said in a press release to Daily Femail, “When LGBTQ+ people and allies came together to make New Hampshire the first entirely Republican-controlled state to pass a comprehensive nondiscrimination law that included transgender people in 2018, Governor Sununu looked me in the eyes and said it was simply ‘the right thing to do.’”
Jakows continued in describing the impacts of some of the bills. “Governor Sununu cannot say our state rejects discrimination and then use the full force of his power to block transgender girls from finding belonging with other girls in sports, censor curriculum that breaks down stigma against LGBTQ lives, and block access to best-practice medical care that doctors, parents, and patients agree is right for them.”
House Bill 1205 is the transgender sports ban (Grades 5-12) Jakows discussed, while the ironically named House Bill 1312 mandates two weeks' notice before talking about LGBTQ+ content in classrooms. House Bill 619, finally, bans gender affirming genital surgeries for minors, something that admittedly almost never happens. As Assigned Media reported, the vast majority of gender affirming surgeries for minors are in transmasculine individuals receiving top surgery. It is also true that cisgender minors get far more gender affirming surgeries than do transgender minors.
The bill that Sununu vetoed was one of the more severe ones, but the damage that signing the other three into law would do cannot be understated. House Bill 396 would have rolled back non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ individuals by allowing discrimination in everywhere from bathrooms to prisons to mental health facilities. This holds particular significance because, as Jakows stated, Sununu passed a bill in 2018, House Bill 1319, that gave state-level protections to trans people on the basis of gender identity.
In other words, he’s consistent on the policy that wins him more votes while throwing trans people to the wolves to appease rabid Republicans. Just the same old, same old from the friends of trans people who want us dead but can’t say that and still win most elections.
However, advocates for trans rights don’t need to worry, because this only reflects how bad anti-trans bills are getting and how prominent the rhetoric is, especially in the modern political scene. What a relief!
Of course, this is a bit of a simplistic view of the situation, because things are either getting worse or getting better depending on how it’s viewed. Every major anti-trans legislation tracker reports a significant increase in the number of bills that have been proposed in comparison to years prior. However, 2024 has seen fewer bills actually go into law than 2023.
This dichotomy of bills being proposed compared to enacted can be interpreted in multiple ways. One interpretation is that this reflects the dwindling popularity of the Republican anti-trans platform and their desperate attempts to rekindle the culture war’s flame. The rising number of bills ties into the vehement anti-trans rhetoric popularized by the party, while the declining number can be said to tie into how constituents aren’t a fan of these policies, and that politicians are better representing that.
Another interpretation can be surmised as the metaphorical “shit” hitting the metaphorical “fan,” with this year just being a statistical blip as part of a growing upwards trend in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
It’s difficult to make accurate statements about what the differences in trends means for the future of transgender rights on the level of state legislation. A lot of it ties into the results of things like the 2024 presidential election. Some may argue that former President, alleged rapist, and self-proclaimed coiner of the term “Bigrant (Biden migrant) crisis” Donald Trump’s election will bode poorly for the results of states as more Republicans get emboldened to take more extreme actions. Others may argue that Vice President Kamala Harris’s election will trigger backlash from extremists.
Just like everything else wrong with Republicans, it could be a lose-lose situation for everyone. Concerned advocates can be assured that, even if things are rough either way, we’ll at least get some really fun history books out of it. Who wouldn’t want bad Internet memes to be enshrined in the class of 2060’s curriculum?
But even though Sununu’s actions no doubt reflect a standard approach by modern Republicans in their attacks on trans rights, there’s reason to at least be somewhat optimistic for the future. If things really are dying down in how severe the attacks are getting, then there’s ample room to push back on the damage that has already been done. It may take several years, or even some decades, but eventually the tide will turn. Current generations might struggle, but those in the future will look back on the actions of those today and see how the fighting wasn’t in vain.
While Daily Femail is in no position to tell people how to handle the more immediate hard times, a worthwhile strategy to keep in mind is to build community with those around you. Even when things get worse, the trans community will always exist and we will always be supporting one another. The community is of course imperfect and there are many ways to improve, but the most vital way to ensure that we survive to see the tide turn is to support other trans people. When all else is taken from us, each other is what we’ll have left.
Mira Lazine is a freelance journalist covering transgender issues, politics, and science. She can be found on Twitter, Mastodon, and BlueSky, @MiraLazine