New Hampshire’s Republican governor, Chris Sununu, has signed a bill that bans transgender athletes in grades 5 through 12 from playing on teams that match their gender identity, bringing New Hampshire into the fold of nearly half of the states nationwide that have adopted similar measures.
The bill passed by the Republican-led Legislature would require schools to designate all teams as girls, boys or mixed, with eligibility determined based on students’ birth certificates or “other evidence.” Supporters of the bill said they wanted to protect girls from injury at the hands of transgender athletes, who are bigger and stronger.
Governor Sununu signed the bill on Friday, saying in a statement that “this bill will ensure fairness and safety in women’s sports by maintaining a balance between fairness and competition in athletics.” The bill will take effect within 30 days.
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Megan Tuttle, president of the New Hampshire chapter of the NEA, a union that represents public school employees, criticized Sununu.
“Public schools should be safe and welcoming environments for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity,” she said in a statement. “It is shameful that Governor Sununu signed this bill into law, which removes students from sports that help foster a sense of belonging that is so important to young people’s development.”
Governor Sununu also signed a bill on Friday banning gender reassignment surgery for transgender minors, effective Jan. 1, 2025. The treatment has been available in the United States for more than a decade and is supported by major medical groups.
“This bill is focused on protecting the health and safety of New Hampshire’s children and has bipartisan support,” Sununu wrote.
Sununu also vetoed another bill that would have allowed public and private institutions to discriminate on the basis of “biological sex” in multi-person restrooms, locker rooms, athletics and detention centers. Sununu pointed to a 2018 law that banned discrimination in employment, public accommodations and housing on the basis of gender identity. He said the problem with the current bill is that “in some cases it is trying to solve a problem that does not exist in New Hampshire, and in doing so it is creating unnecessary divisiveness.”
In April, the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced it would ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports. The National Conference of Presidents of Small Colleges and Universities voted 20-0 to approve a policy that would allow only students assigned female at birth to participate in women’s sports. The new policy also bars transgender women and non-binary students who are taking masculinizing hormone therapy from participating.
Meanwhile, West Virginia and Idaho are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review rulings that blocked state laws banning transgender athletes from competing in sports.
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