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While not perfect, these laws provide a much-needed bulwark against the radical transgender ideology that is destroying children even as it continues infiltrating our most powerful and trusted institutions.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, R, signed two laws last week that ban most transgender treatments and surgeries for children and prohibit males from competing in women’s sports.
Sununu first signed HB 619, which bans genital reassignment surgeries for those under 18. The legislature stated in its findings that children and parents should be given adequate information to give informed consent into making decisions that will impact the future of the child.
The legislature also found that there is no real evidence showing a safety or efficacy to the experimental treatments, citing “multivariate analyses of published studies between 2015 and 2022” that “showed no decrease in suicidality after gender affirming surgery, with some studies showing a significant increase in psychiatric hospitalizations and suicide after surgical transition.”
The legislature also found “a lack of high quality clinical trials which provide data on outcomes for adolescent genital gender reassignment surgeries or young adult genital gender reassignment surgeries, particularly after pubertal suppression and cross sex hormones.”
The legislature argued, “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.”
Because of this, the law says that any referral or provision of genital reassignment surgery is unprofessional conduct and subject to discipline by the appropriate licensing entity or discipline board.
The law also recognizes a right to a private cause of action by a minor harmed by genital reassignment surgery.
Sununu issued a press release, saying,
“HB 619 ensures that life altering, irreversible surgeries will not be performed on children. This bill focuses on protecting the health and safety of New Hampshire’s children and has earned bipartisan support. 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.”
The law was introduced by Rep. Terry Roy who said he was “relieved” that Sununu signed the law.
He wrote on X, “While the supposedly wise adults in the medical, mental health, and scientific community debate the wisdom of permanently altering the human body with surgeries and chemicals to match a perception driven by mental illness (gender dysphoria), this law will protect our next generation from permanent mutilation and sterility.
So called ‘gender affirming care’ in children always leads to a lifelong medical patient who will rely on medications, intensive mental health therapy, and contrary to the protestations from advocates, suffer a higher risk of suicide.”
He continued, “Let’s let our children be children and stop mistaking immaturity and adolescent confusion for adult mental illness. It’s not extreme to say that children too young to consent to a tattoo cannot consent to have their breasts removed. It’s not extreme to say that children, who the Democrats just this year, claimed are too immature to consent to marriage, also cannot consent to have their genitals removed.”
Though Roy mentioned children having mastectomies, the law does not actually prohibit the removal of a child’s breasts.
Sununu also signed HB 1205, which prohibits males from competing in girls’ sports from 5th to 12th grade. The law states that a child’s eligibility is determined by their birth certificate issued at birth and not a birth certificate issued later.
The law recognizes a right to a private cause of action for a female athlete or school who is harmed by a violation of the law.
The law does not prohibit females from competing in boys’ sports.
Sununu stated, “HB 1205 ensures fairness and safety in women’s sports by maintaining integrity and competitive balance in athletic competitions. With this widely supported step, New Hampshire joins nearly half of all U.S. States in taking this measure…. By enacting these measures, we continue to uphold the principles of safety, fairness, and common sense for all our citizens.”
Numerous instances of males winning athletic competitions for women or injuring female competitors has led to many states and athletic organizations barring males from competing against women.
New Hampshire’s new laws help safeguard children against medical abuse and biological males competing unfairly in girls’ and women’s sports. Protecting children from having their bodies altered and mutilated in horrific attempts to conform nature to human will and protecting the integrity of girls’ sports and their privacy in locker rooms are both overwhelmingly positive actions.
At the same time, New Hampshire’s new law banning gender reassignment surgeries doesn’t go far enough. That’s because the law doesn’t protect against performing mastectomies on teenage girls, even though it is one of the primary surgeries used for gender transitions.
Chloe Cole, a young woman who detransitioned, has spoken out about being given a double mastectomy at the age of 15. Cole realized she no longer wanted to transition after learning in school about child development and realizing that she wanted to be a mother one day. Her mastectomy left her with physical and emotional scars, and the regret that she can never nurse her children.
She has since filed suit against Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan & Kaiser Foundation Hospitals for performing her gender transition. She explains,
“My teenage life has been the culmination of excruciating pain, regret, and most importantly injustice. I have been emotionally and physically damaged and stunted by so-called medical professionals in my most important developmental period. I was butchered by an institution that we trust more than anything else in our lives. What is worse is that I am not alone in my pain. I will see to the fact that the blood and tears of detransitioners like myself will not lay waste. It is impossible for me to recoup what I have lost, but I will insure no children will be harmed at the hands of these liars and mutilators.”
Many others have suffered the same fate.
Critics like to say that laws like New Hampshire’s aren’t necessary because they aren’t actually happening. That isn’t true, of course, as seen in the experiences of Cole and others, but the actions of the federal government make it clear that these surgeries are not only happening, they are being encouraged and even mandated.
As just one example, the Department of Health and Human Services in late May finalized a new rule that forces hospitals and doctors to perform gender interventions and surgeries on both adults and minors. Fortunately, a federal judge has already ordered a nationwide block on implementing that rule.
Government has the responsibility to protect children from abuse, and so-called gender affirmation treatments are without question some of the worst kinds of abuse. They permanently alter the bodily functions and health of children who don’t have the legal or cognitive ability to consent and they allow medical professionals to use deception and bullying tactics to manipulate both children and their parents.
Allowing biological males in women’s sports is also egregious and opens the door to allowing males into all women’s spaces across society, including dorms, shelters, and prisons.
New Hampshire was right to pass both laws. While not perfect, they provide a bulwark against a radical transgender ideology that continues to march its way through our most powerful and trusted institutions, including the federal government, the medical profession, education, and sports organizations. It’s time for state lawmakers across the country to do right by their residents and stop the targeted destruction of women and children.
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