Banta: Anti-Trans Rhetoric in the New Hampshire Legislature
Currently, 15 bills have been introduced in the New Hampshire legislature to limit the rights of transgender people. House Bill 619, which outlines which genital reconstructive surgeries are allowed to be performed on minors and which are not, passed through the New Hampshire House of Representatives in January and is scheduled to reach the state Senate in March. This bill, sponsored by eight Republican senators, contains several inaccurate words when referring to transgender healthcare. The phrase “gender reassignment surgery” itself is considered outdated by the medical community, which uses the term “gender-affirming care” to describe the variety of mental and physical healthcare options available to transgender people. The bill also contains the word “genitalia” 21 times and the word “transgender” a grand total of zero times. This is not the first time that Republican policymakers have displayed a shameless obsession over the genitals of children to misrepresent the nuances of transgender experiences.