Bill to ban transgender girls from NH girls sports debated

CONCORD — The New Hampshire legislature is considering a few bills that would prohibit transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports.

House Bill 1205 was heard in the House Education Committee Monday, and Senate Bill 375 was heard in the Senate Education Committee Tuesday. The bills come after the House passed a bill to ban gender-affirming care for minors in early January. One of the bills regulates bathroom usage by transgender students.

Rep. Louise Andrus, R-Salisbury, the prime sponsor of HB 1205, said Monday that she thinks the bill is necessary because those assigned female at birth in New Hampshire “need protection for safety and fairness in sports."

What do the bills say?

House Bill 1205 would require schools to designate athletics by sex and prohibit people assigned male at birth from participating in female athletics.

Under school, the bill includes kindergarten, nonpublic and public schools offering any grades from one through 12, and public two or four-year institutions of higher learning.

The bill defines female as an individual whose sex determined at birth is female, and male as an individual whose sex determined at birth is male.

The bill does not restrict the eligibility of any student to participate in athletic teams designated as male or coed.

The Senate heard a similar bill Tuesday: SB 375 "requires school sports teams to be expressly designated as male, female, or coed, and prohibits biologically male students from participating in female designated sports or entering female locker rooms."

This version goes further than the House proposal in that it also would regulate the bathrooms transgender students can use at school, according to the Associated Press.

Arguments made for and against the ban in the House

Proponents for the House bill argued that transgender women have a physical advantage over cisgender women.

“Biological females deserve to play sports on a level playing field. We have biological females that work hard at school in the sport that they love and compete in and win,” Andrus said. “But maybe, along comes a biological male that competes and wins. Where is the fairness?”

Rep. Michael Moffett, R-Loudon, told the House committee he thinks it’s a safety issue for girls to play against those assigned male at birth. Rep. Jess Edwards, R-Auburn, compared the situation to the military, where he said different genders are held to different physical fitness standards.

Courtney Reed, a policy advocate for the ACLU of New Hampshire, testified at the House in opposition to the bill. She said it raises serious concerns and would allow for discrimination based on sex in New Hampshire.

“Does this mean that any masculine looking girl might be subject to some sort of policing or might have to provide her birth certificate for investigation whereas someone who looks more petite and feminine might not?” Reed said. “I would like to see these alleged records of danger and violence in sports because as far as I know there is no substantiated account of that happening.”

Linds Jakows, a cofounder of 603 Equality, a group in Dover which seeks to “create an LGBTQ friendly Granite State,” criticized the suggestion that transgender girls pose a danger to other girls and women, saying that sort of rhetoric is dangerous for transgender girls’ mental health and inclusion.

Nancy Brennan from Weare called the comments on the bill using the words "men" and "boys" to refer to transgender women and girls "ignorant and cruel." She said that sports at the school level are supposed to be fun and inclusive.

"When kids aren’t allowed to play, it hurts," Brennan said. "And for a transgender kid, it can be devastating."

Regardless of which sex they were assigned at birth, girls often have advantages over one another, like height or private coaching, Brennan said.

Jennifer Smith, a transgender woman and retired family practice physician, said the idea that the vast majority of transgender girls and women are putting other women at a disadvantage isn’t true, especially for those who start transitioning before puberty.

Smith had just come from a tennis match, where she said her teammates don’t mind that she is transgender.

“Some of them are taller, and at least one of them hits much harder than I do,” she said.

Two former athletes shared their opposing views in the Senate

The Associated Press reported two former athletes Tuesday who took opposite positions on the Senate bill.

Michelle Cilley Foisy, of Temple, told the committee she broke track and field records in high school, won a state championship as part of a relay team and attended college on an athletic scholarship.

“I go into this detail with my athletic career not to receive recognition but to emphasize that my accomplishments were not once lessened by the runners I ran against, they were only improved upon,” she said.

Cilley Foisy said her opposition to the bill also stems from her experience as a mother to six children, including a teen who was suicidal until they expressed “how lost they felt in their own body.”

The proposed legislation, she said, “escalates and exacerbates the isolation trans youth like my child have to endure.”

The committee also heard from Nancy Biederman, who opened her testimony by noting that she won the Connecticut high school doubles championship in badminton in 1987.

“I worked really hard to get that status,” said Biederman, a supporter of the bill who argued that transgender athletes are taking spots on teams away from other students.

“I don’t care what you wear. I don’t care what drugs you take. I don’t care what surgery you take, you are not a woman,” she said.

History of transgender legislation in New Hampshire

More than 20 states currently have laws banning transgender students from participating on the sports team in line with their gender.

The Associated Press reports that New Hampshire lawmakers have rejected similar proposals in recent years, but this year are considering these two bills.

Advocates for transgender youth have opposed other bills this session, including a House-passed bill that would make New Hampshire the 24th state to restrict or ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. The care has been available in the United States for more than a decade and is endorsed by major medical associations.

The House also has passed legislation critics say would roll back anti-discrimination protections enacted in 2018.

The current law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex or gender identity, but the bill passed earlier this month would allow public and private entities to differentiate on the basis of “biological sex” in multiperson bathrooms and locker rooms, athletic events and detention facilities. One lawmaker who voted to pass it, however, has said he will seek reconsideration.