Legislation to safeguard women by barring transgender people from women’s public bathrooms passed in Tennessee and New Hampshire, with one bill on the way to the governor to be signed into law.
The New Hampshire bill, HB 148, which passed in the state’s House of Representatives on Thursday, will allow schools to ban transgender people from bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams. And if it is signed into law, it would “allow the owners of the spaces included in the bill to bar transgender people without facing discrimination charges,” SeaCoastOnline/USA Today Network reported.
It would also allow the state’s jails and juvenile facilities to place those who identify as transgender in facilities based on their birth gender, not their assumed gender.
The bill is now headed to the state Senate.
A similar bill was vetoed in 2024 by then-Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) and if passed this year would also roll back some of the “non-discrimination protections” Sununu pushed in 2018, according to the report.
Republican Speaker Pro Tempore Jim Kofalt, a cosponsor of the legislation, said the bill is a “critical step” to safeguarding women’s rights.
“The passage of HB 148 is a critical step toward safeguarding privacy, fairness, safety, and respect for all Granite Staters,” Kofalt said. “HB 148 protects vulnerable populations, ensuring that women in prisons, shelters, and detention centers aren’t forced to share intimate spaces with biological men.”
Tennessee’s bill is a few steps ahead of New Hampshire’s. The transgender bathroom bill in Tennessee, House Bill 64, passed both the state House and Senate and is already headed to Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) to sign into law.
The bill would require all schools, both public and private, to ban transgender people from using any bathroom that does not correspond to their birth gender and would relegate people to choose bathrooms based on their “immutable biological sex,” NBC News reported.
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“We want to protect girls, protect young ladies and their privacy and security in spaces like restrooms and shower facilities,” said bill sponsor state Rep. Gino Bulso (R).
Laws banning transgender people from choosing their own restrooms made national news first in 2016 when North Carolina set the ball rolling with a law that became the focus of woke attacks and even spurred sports organizations to deprive the state of tournaments and special games.
Since then, nearly ten years later, the resistance to these laws has nearly collapsed. Currently, similar bills have passed in Florida, Ohio, and Wyoming, and other states are in the process of debating similar laws.
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