CONCORD, New Hampshire —
Legislators in New Hampshire heard testimony on a bill on Tuesday that would limit the sporting activities that transgender youngsters might participate in.
The Senate Education Committee heard impassioned evidence over the gender roles that school sports should play for student-athletes.
“In my opinion, this bill is detrimental to children,” Weare resident Nancy Brennan stated.
Senate Bill 375, the primary sponsor of which is state senator Kevin Avard, R-Nashua, mandates sports teams to clearly identify as coed, male, or female. It forbids students who identify as biologically male from using female restrooms or playing sports with women.
The measure has no bar against transgender males using boys toilets or locker rooms or playing boys sports.
“Women will compete against women, men against men,” Avard stated.
The measure addresses athletics in New Hampshire’s public schools. Only Avard and one other witness supported the bill out of the seventeen who testified on it.
Fifteen witnesses opposed the bill in court.
“It is awful that the state is using its power to prevent girls from participating in these genuinely life-altering opportunities,” Canterbury resident Jonah Sutton-Morse remarked.
One eighth-grader from Pembroke who testified against the bill identified herself as transgender.
“I am a female named Iris,” she declared.
Iris informed the committee that she is legally identified as a woman by a court ruling.
“I could try to use the girls locker room because legally I’m a female,” she stated. “But these proposed laws say that me and my school could get sued for having a trans girl on girls teams or in girls bathrooms or in girls locker rooms.”
The committee intends to convene in executive session so that a vote may be taken at a later date.
