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.