Bill expanding sex education opt-out passes N.H. House
CONCORD, N.H. — For years, schools have already been required to notify parents two weeks before teaching sex education, so families can opt out. But a new Republican-backed proposal passed by the New Hampshire House in a 186 to 185 vote this week would expand that notification requirement to allow families to opt out of instruction on sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and gender expression as well.
The move, which drew condemnation from Democrats, comes amid a heightened national focus on schools, teachers, and gender. New Hampshire Republicans have addressed that constellation of issues in a number of bills this session seeking to enshrine so-called parental rights into state law.
Three Republicans joined Democrats in voting against House Bill 1312 Thursday.
The bill also requires school policies to allow employees to respond to certain questions from parents, including ones about a student’s sexuality or mental health.
The measure would still allow school staff to withhold information “if a reasonably prudent per
son would believe that disclosure would result in abuse, abandonment, or neglect.”
Republicans argued Thursday the bill is about ensuring that parents’ right to have their questions answered honestly.
“Don’t parents have a right to know?” said Representative Glenn Cordelli, a Tuftonboro Republican.
“Any policy that would keep answers from parents is destructive. It would destroy the relationship between parents and child and it would also destroy trust between parents and schools,” he said, adding that he believes some want to insert the government into a parenting role.
Thursday’s vote comes after the Legislature failed last year to pass a sweeping bill that Republicans said would enshrine a “parental bill of rights” in state law.
Critics including Democrats warned that last year’s omnibus bill would harm LGBTQ+ students, requiring schools to disclose information about a child’s gender identity to their parents, while Republicans accused Democrats of undermining the very fabric of society by “denying parents the opportunity to exercise their inherent authority.”
Republican lawmakers who see parental rights as a priority found a new strategy in 2024: breaking the sprawling proposal into smaller, discrete parts, to see which ones garner the political support needed to become law. That tactic has worked in the past with housing, a less polarizing issue, and now, Republicans are finding some success when it comes to parental notification and school disclosure policies.
Democrats criticized the bill that passed Thursday, which they called unnecessary, divisive, and dangerous. They believe the bill pushes schools toward forcing teachers to out students to their parents without regard to the best interests of the child. They also said that students need to have a trusted adult at school in whom they can confide, and that this measure erodes educators’ ability to provide that.
“This bill would cause censoring in health education classes and in all other instruction and curriculum that reference LGBTQ people,” said Representative Hope Damon, a Sunapee Democrat.
“It could apply to books assigned in history class on women achieving the right to vote, on marriage equality, on the Stonewall uprising, and so much more,” she said.
The bill’s prime sponsor, Kristine Perez, a Londonderry Republican, testified in February that indeed the bill is intended to apply to courses beyond health education, like English, language arts, and art, if they include discussion of human sexuality, gender, and gender identity. Perez said teachers would still be allowed to answer questions or share “incidental information” under the bill.
“For example, if I was a teacher and someone asked me if I was married, I certainly could say I was married,” she said.
Some in the LGBTQ+ community said the bill will chill education around gender and gender identity. Busy teachers can’t always plan their lessons two weeks ahead of time, some warned, and they fear it would be hard for teachers to comply with the two-week notice requirement, and that it could lead to confusion and fear about what they’re allowed to teach.
The concern is that the measure would lead to the exclusion of LGBTQ+ issues from the classroom.
“I think teachers would be busy and would probably just skip any teaching that involved LGBTQ+ issues,” said Iris Turmelle, a 14-year-old trans girl from Pembroke. “That would leave me and the rest of the LGBTQ+ student body completely left out and isolated from our entire education . . . . This would mean no representation of LGBTQ+ anywhere in my education.”
Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the ACLU of New Hampshire, opposed the bill, which he called “very, very expansive,” noting that it could apply to material taught in a history or social studies course. He also said the bill is problematic because it targets LGBTQ+ students and could lead to a forced outing.
“This bill in our view, would drive people away from trusted adults with whom they may feel more comfortable discussing sensitive subjects, especially if they’re going through the process of preparing themselves for how to have those discussions with their parents,” Bissonnette testified in February.
The bill arrived without a recommendation from the House Education Committee, where a 10-10 vote in February was split on whether the bill should advance or not. In an online legislative portal, 10 people registered their support for the bill, while 207 registered opposition to it.
After Thursday’s vote, the NEA of New Hampshire, a teacher’s union, released a statement criticizing the bill’s passage. “Educators and families work well together to support New Hampshire students, but once again politicians are using these critical relationships as a political football in their conservative culture wars,” said Megan Tuttle, president of NEA New Hampshire.
The bill now heads to the state Senate.
‘This bill would cause censoring in health education classes and in all other instruction and curriculum that reference LGBTQ people.’
REPRESENTATIVE HOPE DAMON, a Sunapee Democrat