Author: gbaldwin

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Rep. Joyce Weston, June 22, 2022 

I’ll start with June 28, 1969. You probably know the story about Stonewall in the West Village of New York. The New York Police Department raided at that gay club in the early morning, as they often did. But this time, the guys in the club decided to fight back, locking the police in the bar.

What followed was six days of protest — rioting really — sparking what’s widely-recognized as the start of the gay pride movement.

In the years following the Stonewall riots in 1969, a Gay Student Organization at the UNH was formed. This was not, of course, well-received by the Manchester Union Leader or by our conservative Governor, Meldrim Thomson. Thomson told the university that the Gay Student Organization could exist, but they couldn’t hold social events. The Gay Student Organization responded by taking both Thompson and UNH to court. It went to the New Hampshire State Supreme Court, and in 1974, the court ruled in favor of the Gay Student Organization.

Portsmouth had a large gay community, partly because of the Air Force base. In the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic started, former state Rep. Jim Splaine of Portsmouth and other members of the community were active in getting resources for Granite Staters affected by AIDS. Splaine proposed an ordinance that the City of Portsmouth would ban any contract with a business that discriminated based on sexual orientation. Unfortunately, it was defeated by the City Council by a vote of 5–4.

But gay rights advocates kept working at it and were able to pass a similar ordinance several years later, opening the door for other communities to do the same.

Those pushes for equality then trickled UP to the state level when Rep. Splaine and other lawmakers pushed through a hate crime bill in the 1990s.

Then came the uphill battle on civil unions in the early 2000s. Oddly, it did not receive immediate support from either the Democratic leadership or the governor. But after months of discussion and public meetings, it finally passed.

When Gov. John Lynch signed that bill in May 2007, New Hampshire became the first state in the United States to pass a civil unions law through legislative action, instead of through the courts.

Two years later, the Granite State passed a law allowing same-sex marriages. Our representative from Plymouth, Carol Estes, had an influential role in that process, arguing on the House floor for the right of people to marry whomever they choose. She related her experience as a black woman being denied the right to marry a white man decades ago in Florida.

My wife Sally and I had gotten legally married in Massachusetts in 2004, and our marriage was immediately recognized by the State of NH in 2007, partly thanks to Carol’s effort.

There have been other milestones in recent years. In 2018, Chris Pappas was elected as the first openly gay member of Congress, and Gov. Chris Sununu signed a ban on conversion therapy. The Republicans tried but failed to reverse that ban this session, so it’s not over. The New Hampshire legislature has the largest LGBTQ caucus in the country, including two transgender women.
 

LEGISLATION

Last year, state lawmakers rejected a bill that would have banned transgender girls from playing girls’ sports. I will talk about that issue in a few minutes.

But first, let’s talk about the so-called “Parental Bill of Rights”, HB 1431, which Ray Buckley described as the NH’s version of the ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill.’ The list of sponsors for 1431 reads like a who’s who of Free Staters, including Campton’s Alliegro and our current Senator Bob Guida.

This legislation is part of a nationwide far right effort to attack our teachers, undermine our education, and attack some of the Granite State’s most vulnerable — the gay population. Kids growing up gay in NH need supportive teachers and guidance counselors that they can trust.

HB 1431 would have required schools to notify parents every time a student changed their extra-curricular activities or joined a club, like Theater, Destination Imagination, or The Gay Straight Alliance.

And, schools would have been required to report all discipline imposed by school authorities. So if chatty Cathy needs to have her seat changed, the teacher has to call the parent. And if Tommy throws a Tater Tot in the cafeteria, the Vice Principal will be expected to call mom.

This bill would have required teachers to alert parents if they learned that the child had questions about his sexual identity, sometimes putting the child at risk.

NH has been studying Adverse Childhood Experiences for decades now. We know that the best way to raise resilient kids is to engage them in healthy relationships, and we know that schools are the ideal place to lay the foundation of trust that kids need to thrive.

But HB 1431 would have required school counselors to disclose any discussions about gender identity or expression, whether the student is ready to have the conversation or not, because “inadvertently or purposefully withheld” information would be subject to disciplinary action. In addition under this law, parents would have been able to seek monetary damages and court costs from the accused teacher.

Helping students communicate with their parents about their sexuality is a good thing. Forcing school personnel to out their students to parents, before anyone is ready, is not.

The bill’s docket is complex, reflecting the complexity of the bill and the strong opposition to is. After six amendments, it was passed by the House, to our horror. When it went to the Senate, they amended it further, and then the two bodies had to come together in a committee of conference to work out the differences. The shenanigans in that committee are disturbing. Four of the five members were replaced. And Rep. Jason Osborne, the majority leader, himself became one of the conferees, surely with the intent of influencing the outcome of this bill. This is where the sausage is made, folks, and it can be pretty brutal.

Finally the Conference Committee report was brought to the House floor where we defeated it by only five votes. It was an exciting moment for the Democrats in that session, giving us a much needed win at the end of a long day of disappointments.

There were ten Republicans who stood up to the Free Staters. Two of them are in the PAD area: Rep. Ned Gordon of Bristol and Rep. Bonnie Ham of Lincoln. If you see them around, please thank them.

Now for a moment on the issue of transgender girls playing sports. HB 1180 had a lot in it when it was introduced, but in the committee, it was stripped down to only one issue — that of transgender girls playing sports.

There is a well-publicized situation of a 22-year-old trans woman, Lia Thomas, who is currently swimming for the University of PA. She competed for three years at UPenn as a man before her transition. Now, as a woman, she is breaking records and beating all the other women. This one instance has created a national outrage, and I can understand that. I agree that this is unfair to the other women competitors. But remember, Lia Thomas transitioned after puberty, after she benefited from the testosterone of her teenage years. I don’t know when she started taking hormone blockers, but I suspect it was fairly late in her physical development.

There are solutions to the problem. Just last week, the Olympic Committee and Interscholastic Athletic Association announced other options, such as testosterone testing, to deal with this issue.

But let’s talk about high school kids in New Hampshire.

There are about 500 girl and boy students in NH who identify as trans. Most of them are fairly shy individuals, focused on their studies, and very few get seriously involved in sports. The boys who believe they should be girls, if they are supported by their families, take hormone blockers, resulting in development at the same rate as the girls. At the age of 18, they can start on Estrogen treatments and can then decide on their own personal development plans.

Keep in mind that most boys who grow up feeling they are really meant to be in a girl’s body are unlikely to be your next half-back. While I do not want to stereotype anyone, I might expect a gentler kind of kid from someone who really feels he is supposed to be a girl.

So do we need to forbid each of these kids from participating in high school sports? I don’t think so. If a kid in high school chooses to ski, or play tennis, or run track, let’s let him — or her — do so.

So what happened with HB 1180? It was not quite the circuitous route of HB 1431, but the original bill did make it out of committee hearings as “Ought to Pass.” A motion to lay it on the table (essentially put on hold) failed by two votes. After an amendment was added, another attempt to lay it on the table was called, and this time succeeded by eight votes, 14 of the Republicans which included, again, Rep. Ned Gordon, and Rep. Joseph Depalma, a student who just graduated from PSU.

We can expect these issues to come up again. We managed to squeak by on both these two bills, but the Republican platform is not on the side of the gay population here in New Hampshire. We have already lost one transgender legislator, Lisa Bunker, who with her wife, have read the handwriting on the wall and moved to California.

For this reason and others, of course, we need to make sure we defeat the radical right this November. If they win again, they will be even more emboldened.

 

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Published April 8, 2022 on https://www.npr.org/. The original post can be seen at https://www.npr.org/2022/04/08/1091459152/biden-harris-jackson-senate-historic-confirmation-vote

By Eric McDaniel

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson proclaimed the progress her confirmation to the Supreme Court represents and offered her gratitude to the many people who she said helped her along the way at an event on the White House South Lawn on Friday.

“It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, but we’ve made it! We’ve made it — all of us,” Jackson said.

“I have dedicated my career to public service because I love this country and our Constitution and the rights that make us free,” Jackson also said.

Quoting poet Maya Angelou, Jackson said, “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”

“In my family, it took just one generation to go from segregation to the Supreme Court of the United States,” she added, also offering a tearful tribute to her daughters. Jackson also thanked Democratic Senate leaders and numerous White House staff involved in her confirmation process.

Vice President Harris and President Biden spoke before the future justice, often to raucous applause from an audience that included Jackson’s family, friends, administration staff, Cabinet members and Democratic lawmakers. Supreme Court justices and all lawmakers who voted for Jackson, including Republicans, were invited to the event. The justices and Republican Sens. Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski declined to attend, though Biden praised the trio of Republicans, noting Romney’s father George’s support for civil rights in the 1960s.

Biden also decried “verbal abuse, the anger, the constant interruptions, the most vile, baseless assertions and accusations” from some Republican senators during confirmation hearings, saying the nominee displayed “the incredible character and integrity she possesses.”

Biden took time to praise Jackson’s “dignity” and said her confirmation is a fulfillment not just of a campaign promise he made, but of a definition of America he said he offered to Chinese President Xi Jinping years ago as a nation of “possibilities.”

Biden recognized a couple of younger Black women in the audience who had voiced their feelings of inspiration from the judge, including a young woman who said she wants to be a Supreme Court justice one day.

Vice President Harris felt a deep sense of pride and joy

Vice President Harris spoke of writing a note to her goddaughter during the Senate vote.

“I told her that I felt such a deep sense of pride and joy and about what this moment means for our nation, and for her future. And I will tell you, her braids are just a little longer than yours, but when I wrote to her I told her what I knew this would mean for her life and all that she has in terms of potential.”

“The young leaders of our nation will learn from the experience, the judgment, the wisdom that you, Judge Jackson, will apply in every case that comes before you,” Harris also said.

Jackson was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday in a 53-47 vote with all members of the Democratic caucus and three Republicans voting for her nomination. She will assume her duties on the court in early summer when Justice Stephen Breyer retires.

After her graduation from Harvard Law School, Jackson clerked for Justice Breyer on the Supreme Court.

Jackson, 51, went on to serve eight years as a federal trial court judge and was confirmed in June for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Before becoming a judge, she worked as a public defender and will be the first Supreme Court justice since Thurgood Marshall with experience representing indigent criminal defendants.

It is possible that Jackson could be the only Supreme Court justice that Biden has the opportunity to see through the confirmation process. Democrats could lose control of the evenly divided Senate after this fall’s midterm elections, giving Republicans the votes to block confirmation of any further nominees.

Two justices were successfully confirmed during Barack Obama’s presidency. During his term in office, Donald Trump named three justices to the court.

In an interview with Axios on Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to say whether he would hold hearings for any future Biden Supreme Court pick if Republicans regain control of the chamber.

In 2016, McConnell refused to hold hearings for Merrick Garland, Obama’s nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, saying the winner of the pending presidential election should appoint Scalia’s successor.

After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death before the 2020 presidential election, McConnell went against his precedent and confirmed Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett in a record 30 days.

Click here to read the March 2022 newsletter

 

(Originally published March 9, 2022 on InDepthNH.org). The original post can be seen at https://indepthnh.org/2022/03/09/op-ed-rep-porter-is-upset-at-whats-happening-to-public-schools/

By Rep. Marjorie Porter, D-Hillsborough

The 1980 national platform for the Libertarian Party, under a section entitled "Domestic Ills, " contained the following:

We advocate the complete separation of education and the State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children…Government ownership, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.

As an interim measure to encourage the growth of private schools…we support tax credits for tuition and for other expenditures…

We condemn compulsory education laws…

We further support immediate reduction of tax support for schools, and removal of the burden of school taxes from those not responsible for the education of children.

Ed Clark and David Koch topped the Libertarian presidential ticket that year. They were considered kind of whacky. They didn't fare very well.

David gave up his political career, and he and his brother Charles went on to found the Koch Foundation and Americans for Prosperity (AFP), spending their billions to lobby for their Libertarian principles in more subtle ways. They are based in Kansas.

The NH branch of AFP is quite active. They have contributed to the campaigns of many of my House colleagues. To get funding, candidates sign a pledge, which they take seriously.

The nice young woman who lobbies for AFP visits my new committee—Education—quite often, to tell us why AFP supports or does not support a bill we are hearing.

AFP also sent postcards and set up booths at public events, inviting people who homeschool or send their kids to private school to sign up for our new education voucher program. It worked well. Instead of the 27 kids Commissioner Edelblut predicted would sign up, close to 1800 have so far, causing the program to be close to $9 million over budget, and rising. We are told it's not a problem&mdashwhat's a few million here or there. (The Legislative Budget Assistant, the non-partisan group which advises the legislature on all things fiscal, has told us we could be looking at a potential $70 million a year moving forward. No big deal?)

If you dig just a little deeper, you'll find Koch money going to quite a few interesting NH places—directly or indirectly.

Take, for example, the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, a think tank here in the state. Andrew Cline is the president of that august organization—the same Andrew Cline who chairs the State Board of Education.

The Bartlett Center is a member of the State Policy Network, an arm of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and has received funding from EdChoice, which distributes yellow scarves and advocates for school vouchers. Both get their money from—you guessed it—the Koch Foundation. Funny how that works.

Does this seem like a bit of a conflict? The chair of the State Board of Education is supposed to work to support our public schools. Having his paying-job rely on funding from organizations that encourage families to leave the public schools for greener, private pastures, seems somehow, well, off. But what do I know? I'm no ethicist.

I digress. Back to the Libertarians.

New Hampshire had always had a libertarian bent, which is one reason the Free State Project chose us for their libertarian experiment. They want to make us all more free, and get us out from under the government's thumb. By seceding from the union, for example. And getting rid of public schools. (They even call them government schools. See paragraph 2 above. And more below.)

Free State members have a lot of power now in New Hampshire. One serves on the board of the Josiah Bartlett Center, another on the board of the Children's Scholarship Fund, which administers the new school voucher program. Our majority leader came to NH as part of the Free State Project. Several others in high leadership positions did too. There are Free State members on all our committees, and they make their voices heard, loud and clear.

Ask the governor.

Jason Sorens, the founder of the movement, is now the Director of the Center for Ethics in Society at St. Anselm's. They do get around.

The Commissioner of Education, and our Free State colleagues are big proponents of the school voucher program, which they lovingly call "education freedom accounts.” But of course, they would.

They try to sell them as helping poor kids have choices too, but they have brought several bills forward to raise the income cap to five hundred percent of poverty level, or to eliminate it altogether, making me wonder how a family of four earning $132,000/yr can be considered poor.

HB 20, the House bill setting up the program, was retained in committee last year, because there was much that needed fixing. But that didn't stop the Senate from including their version in the budget bill—warts and all.

Democrats have filed bills trying to address the dangerous flaws, only to be told they are trying to kill the program with a thousand cuts.

A month or so ago, a recording surfaced of a Libertarian Institute podcast, episode 653, broadcast on November 6, 2021. The guest was Jeremy Kauffman, who is listed as a member of the Board of the Free State Project. He is talking about why the Free State Project will succeed in NH, and uses as an example, our school choice program. In it he says, and I quote, the program is a "steppingstone towards reducing or eliminating state involvement in schools" and acknowledges the "entire program is run by Free Staters." He goes on to talk about how much money you can get per student, and that it can be spent on anything Free Staters approve of, because Free Staters decide who gets what. Listen for yourself. The link is below.

I have mentioned this podcast to my committee members, several of whom are Free State members, and to date, no one has come forward to deny or retract what Mr. Kauffman so clearly stated in November. What we have heard is that we should not worry about fraud, or lack of oversite, or background checks, or any of the other concerns Democrats have brought forth, because it was all taken care of in rules.

But the rules, too, were rushed through, over the objections of the non-partisan legislative lawyers, who urged caution.

Caution, however, has been thrown to the wind. Guess who chairs the committee which approves the rules?

Day after day in committee we hear testimony on bills that demeans and insults our public schools and those who teach in or oversee them. Public schools are portrayed as unsafe places where the mistreatment of kids and parents is the norm. Restrictions have been placed on what can be said and taught there; so far 35 NH public school teachers have been reported for potentially violating the divisive concepts law, also rushed through in the budget. There's a simple form to fill out on the DOE website to help folks to report them; a national right-wing group is offering a $500 bounty for the first one caught who loses their license to teach.

"Freedom Accounts" will help you break free from this public-school jail and sending your child to private school or home schooling will solve all his problems. Private schools and home schools do not have to follow any state rules or regulations. A Libertarian dream come true.

See paragraphs 2 through 4. Suddenly, not so whacky.

New Hampshire has one of the best public-school systems in the country. Is this how you want it to end?

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