Gov. Chris Sununu (R-N.H.) announced Friday he has signed two bills addressing hot-button issues related to girls’ sports and sex change surgery for minors. He also vetoed a third bill dealing with how the state handles the issue of biological sex in public spaces like bathrooms, locker rooms and prisons.
Sununu’s actions left advocates on both sides of New Hampshire’s gender vs. biological sex debate unhappy.
Polls show Granite State voters overwhelmingly support keeping biological males from competing in girls’ sports, and Sununu sided with those who raised concerns about safety and equity.
“HB 1205 ensures fairness and safety in women’s sports by maintaining integrity and competitive balance in athletic competitions. With this widely supported step, New Hampshire joins nearly half of all U.S. States in taking this measure,” Sununu said in a statement.
An NHJournal poll in May 2024 found that nearly 60 percent of Granite Staters support girls-only sports teams, while just 18 percent back the position of Democratic legislators that biological males should be allowed to compete on girls’ teams.
New Hampshire and neighboring Massachusetts have been the site of several high-profile incidents involving male athletes participating in girls’ competitions with outcomes that angered many athletes and parents. A male athlete at Kearsarge Regional High School took first place in the girls’ high jump competition earlier this year. And a bearded 6-foot-tall male who reportedly identifies as female, ragdolled a female player in a Massachusetts high school basketball game in April.
“It is deeply disappointing that Governor Sununu signed HB 1205 into law today- a bill that will single out transgender girls by banning them from playing on the team that aligns with the gender they live every day,” Senate Democratic Leader Donna Soucy (D-Manchester) said in a statement.
Soucy also claimed, without evidence, that “girls as young as ten may have to submit to some form of physical examination of their genitalia to prove their gender.”
Sununu also signed a bill banning sex change operations for children, ensuring that “life-altering, irreversible surgeries will not be performed on children,” Sununu said in his veto statement.
“This bill focuses on protecting the health and safety of New Hampshire’s children and has earned bipartisan support. There is a reason that countries across the world – from Sweden to Norway, France, and the United Kingdom – have taken steps to pause these procedures and policies. Even the Biden Administration opposes these youth surgeries, citing the American Academy of Pediatrics.”
Democratic candidate for governor Cinde Warmington opposes both the ban on males in female sports and preventing children from having sex-change operations.
“It is extremely disappointing to see Governor Sununu participate in the Republican Party’s continued bullying of children,” Warmington said Friday.
Sununu’s signature on these bills also outraged Planned Parenthood New Hampshire.
“These discriminatory laws will have devastating effects on trans individuals, particularly teenagers, who already face significant discrimination. These bills shamefully deny trans people autonomy over their own bodies and ban health care providers from providing honest and accurate information — tactics taken from the national anti-abortion playbook,” said Liz Canada, Advocacy Director of Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund.
But Sununu vetoed HB396, which would have given government more leeway to allow public spaces like bathrooms, locker rooms and prisons to be single sex.
“In 2018, Republicans and Democrats passed legislation to prevent discrimination because as I said at the time, it is unacceptable and runs contrary to New Hampshire’s Live Free or Die Spirit. That still rings true today. The challenge with HB 396 is that in some cases it seeks to solve problems that have not presented themselves in New Hampshire, and in doing so invites unnecessary discord,” Sununu said.
“As such, today I have vetoed HB 396.”
In an NHJournal op ed advocating for the bill, state Sen. Dan Innis (R-Bradford) and state Rep. Jim Kofalt (R-Wilton) argued the legislation “does not impose any mandates whatsoever. It does, however, protect communities from unwarranted litigation and resolves ongoing arguments about the legality of distinctions based on biological sex. This bill empowers local communities to work together to find common-ground solutions.”
Shannon McGinley with Cornerstone Action, a Christian advocacy organization, said Sununu’s veto “has ratified the actions of his Department of Justice and given them carte blanche to ban sex separation in bathrooms, locker rooms, sports, and prisons.”
“Governor Sununu’s move to ban sex separation in locker rooms and restrooms is not a ‘moderate’ action. The Governor is siding with the most extreme far-left 10 percent of New Hampshire – people who would never have voted for him in a million years. We think the Governor will come to see that this was the most politically foolish calculation he could have made,” McGinley said.
