New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte last week vetoed a pair of anti-LGBTQ+ bills pushed through by her fellow Republican legislators, along with three other bills that would have advanced far-right interests. “It would take a two-thirds majority in both the state House and Senate to override Ayotte’s vetoes. Republicans do not have a veto-proof majority in the House,” according to a report in the Advocate.
Reports the Advocate:
House Bill 324 would have barred schools from distributing books and other materials deemed “harmful to minors.” It was aimed primarily at sexual content and likely would have been used against books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes. It also would have required school districts to strengthen the process through which parents could challenge these materials.
“Current state law appears to provide a mechanism for parents through their local school district to exercise their rights to ensure their children are not exposed to inappropriate materials,” Ayotte said in her veto message. Under this law, “parents must be notified at least two weeks in advance of course materials that involve human sexuality, sexual education, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression,” she noted. “If a parent objects in writing, New Hampshire law further requires an alternative agreed upon between the school district and the parent.”
“Therefore, I do not believe the State of New Hampshire needs to, nor should it, engage in the role of addressing questions of literary value and appropriateness, particularly where the system created by House Bill 324 calls for monetary penalties based on subjective standards,” Ayotte added. Parents who were dissatisfied could have filed lawsuits.
House Bill 148 would have let businesses and correctional facilities to classify and segregate people by sex assigned at birth rather than gender identity, affecting restroom and locker room use. State law bans discrimination based on gender identity, but under the bill, these classifications would not have been considered a violation of the law.
“I believe there are important and legitimate privacy and safety concerns raised by biological males using places such as female locker rooms and being placed in female correctional facilities,” Ayotte wrote. “At the same time, I see that House Bill 148 is overly broad and impractical to enforce, potentially creating an exclusionary environment for some of our citizens.” It could have led to lawsuits as well, she said. Her immediate predecessor as governor, fellow Republican Chris Sununu, had vetoed a similar bill.
Read the complete Advocate story here.
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