Gender Ideologues Attack N.H. Ban on Genital Gender Reassignment Surgery, Boys in Girls’ Sports

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R) on Friday signed into law a bill (HB 619) protecting minors from gender transition procedures — but only genital surgeries. At the same time, Sununu also signed a women’s sports bill (HB 1205) but vetoed a bill (HB 396) protecting women’s private spaces from male intrusion. The moderation of these actions did not spare the governor, or the Republican-controlled state legislature, from attacks by gender ideologues.

HB 619 forbids physicians from carrying out “genital gender reassignment surgery on minors,” or referring minors out-of-state for a genital gender reassignment surgery. Violations constitute “unprofessional conduct … subject to discipline by the appropriate licensing entity or disciplinary review board,” and the law allows the aggrieved minor or parent to sue for damages, although it does not empower the attorney general to do so.

“Adolescent genital gender reassignment surgery generally lacks both adequate information for informed consent and involves a high risk of coercion for parental consent when parents believe that they are faced with a choice between their child committing suicide or consenting to their child’s genital gender reassignment surgeries,” the legislature explained in the bill’s purpose statement. “In the absence of high quality data to prove safety and efficacy, including long term outcomes, only people over the age of majority should receive genital gender reassignment surgery in the state of New Hampshire.”

The bill is reasonable so far as it goes. A dearth of high-quality data, a lack of informed consent, and a high risk of coercion are good reasons to prohibit experimental medical procedures. However, the same reasons apply against other gender transition surgeries, as well as cross-sex hormones and puberty-blockers. For the past two legislative sessions, the New Hampshire legislature has declined to pass bills that would provide stronger protections for minors.

Thus, after making the bill nearly as weak as possible, the New Hampshire legislature barely passed the slimmest of protections for minors. The New Hampshire House approved the bill 199-175 on January 4, and the state Senate passed it 13-10 on May 16.

The legislature also narrowly approved HB 1205, which barred “students of the male sex” from middle and high school “athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls.” The House approved the bill 189-182 on March 21, and the Senate approved it 13-10 on May 16. The bill to protect women-only spaces from male intrusion, which Sununu vetoed, had passed the House 192-184 on January 4 and the Senate 14-10 on May 22.

Transgender ideologues showed no appreciation for either Sununu’s veto of the women’s spaces bill, or the moderation of the gender transition procedure law. ACLU of New Hampshire Executive Director Devon Chaffee accused the governor and Republican-controlled legislature of “cynical attacks on some of the most vulnerable youth in our state” by “imposing discriminatory views and pushing transgender people out of public life.”

Some of the attacks specifically targeted HB 619. In a press release, the GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) said the law “disregards parents’ rights to direct the health care of their child.” This statement implies that parents have a right to permanently sterilize their minor children by authorizing the removal of their genitals, which is the only category of gender transition procedures prohibited by this bill.

In a joint statement, GLAD and the ACLU of New Hampshire charged the bill with “opening the door to further restrictions on established standard-of-care medicine that is recognized by every major U.S. medical association.” The word “further” communicates that this bill also restricts treatment acceptable under the “established standard-of-care … recognized by every major U.S. medical association.” Again, all the bill does is prevent genital gender reassignment surgeries on minors, so the position of GLAD and the ACLU must be that such genital surgeries on minors is considered acceptable medical practice by every major U.S. medical association.

Sununu would beg to differ. “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,” he wrote. “Even the Biden Administration opposes these youth surgeries, citing the American Academy of Pediatrics.” That was before the Biden administration recoiled in terror from the fury unleashed by its activist overlords — I mean allies. That was also before the president ghosted his administration.

Even pro-abortion activists joined the dogpile. Said Christina Warriner, New Hampshire state director of Reproductive Equity Now, “Reproductive equity not only calls on us to fight for reproductive health care access for all, but also demands that we protect bodily autonomy and the right to self-determination of gender identity.” I would have thought that, whatever reproductive equity means, we would be closer to reaching it when kids couldn’t be forcibly sterilized. But, hey, I don’t make the rules.

Pro-transgender activists made one more argument against the HB 619. “Such surgeries are exceedingly rare and no evidence was presented that they are occurring in New Hampshire,” claimed nationwide trans-identifying activist Erin Reed, who is married to trans-identifying Montana lawmaker Zooey Zephyr.

Yet again, opponents of laws protecting minors from gender transition procedures raise the classic pairing of poor objections: it’s not happening, and we shouldn’t ban it. The inconsistency makes one suspect that neither claim is true.

New Hampshire has taken the smallest of baby steps to protect minors from gender transition procedures, becoming the 26th state to do so. But it’s still possible for New Hampshirites to get placed on puberty blockers at age 12, get a mastectomy (or conversely, breast augmentation surgery) at 15 (or 17), start taking cross-sex hormones at 16, and never let their body develop naturally, which usually helps their feelings to course-correct. And, as usual, they can then access genital surgery the day they turn 18.

Perhaps after realizing how little the Left values attempts at compromise, New Hampshire will follow the example of socialist Europe and take further steps to protect children.