Last week, the New Hampshire House of Representatives narrowly voted down HB 415, a critical civil rights bill which would add "gender identity or expression" to the state's existing anti-discrimination laws. This would provide transsexual and transgender individuals with basic civil rights protection.
Fortunately, we get a do-over. Representative Kathleen Taylor (D-Franconia) filed a motion to reconsider HB 415, and the bill will be re-voted this coming Wednesday. It is thus CRITICAL that anyone who lives in New Hampshire or has relatives / friends in New Hampshire get out there and lobby for this! It only went down by 15 votes in a straight party ticket vote the first time around and a lot of legislators were absent from that vote, so we have a serious shot at getting it passed if we can get enough Democrats to actually show up.
On an entirely unpleasant side note, the Human Rights Campaign continues to betray transgender and transsexual Americans by standing with the "gay rights first / only" lobby. HRC barely even deigned to produce a basic information page on HB 415, and they haven't bothered updating it since January. The least HRC could do would be to inform its membership that this crucial civil rights bill is being voted on . . . but no, they've never paid more than lip service to trans rights. Sigh.
Anyway. . . really, seriously, get out there and lobby if you have ANY form of influence in New Hampshire.
Critical Trans Rights Law Up For Vote In New Hampshire
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Darth Wong
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Re: Critical Trans Rights Law Up For Vote In New Hampshire
It seems to me that people are more amenable to gay rights than trans rights because gays are perceived to have been "made that way", whereas trans are perceived to be trying to alter themselves. I'm not saying this perception is fair; just noting that it exists.
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Ziggy Stardust
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Re: Critical Trans Rights Law Up For Vote In New Hampshire
I have an aunt who lives in New Hampshire that I know is planning on doing something to publicly support this, but I don't really know the details. I'm in DC, so there's not a whole lot I can do besides writing notes to people I know who live in NH, but I'll keep my fingers crossed for this.