News + Updates
Updates on our work
The 603 Equality Civic Education Initiative creates a multi-pronged approach to engaging, informing, and empowering voters who care about LGBTQIA issues. An important part of that is by Tracking legislation that touches the LGBTQIA+ community and providing updates and information on how NH residents can effectively engage with proposed legislation at every stage.
SB434: Bill Hearings & Public Record
SB434 - School Censorship
Official Title: relative to regulation of public school materials.
Bill Sponsors:(Prime) Lang (R), Ruth Ward (R), Carson (R), Pearl (R), Avard (R), Victoria Sullivan (R), Keith Murphy (R), Innis (R), Birdsell (R), Rochefort (R), Moffett (R), Drye (R), Noble (R), Freeman (R)
Bill Hearings & Public Record (this record is a work-in-progress)
Summary: This bill would allow a single person within a school district to challenge items and have them removed for the entire district. Despite mechanisms already being in place for parents to prohibit their child from accessing content and materials that they deem inappropriate, this would empower a single person to remove materials for all students - effectively censoring materials district-wide. It’s important that we trust educators to build inclusive and thoughtful classrooms where students can critically engage with a variety of age-appropriate materials, and not create easy mechanisms for censorship.
SB430: Bill Hearings & Public Record
SB430- Forced Outing in Schools
Official Title: relative to mandatory disclosure by school district employees to parents and legal guardians.
Bill Sponsors:(Prime) Lang (R), Avard (R), Birdsell (R), McGough (R), Ruth Ward (R), Innis (R), Gray (R), Gannon (R), Abbas (R), Victoria Sullivan (R), Keith Murphy (R), Carson (R), Pearl (R), Rochefort (R), Berry (R), Moffett (R)
Bill Hearings & Public Record (this record is a work-in-progress)
Summary: This bill expands upon the "forced outing" or mandatory disclosure of any information about public school students to their parents. Last year's HB10, the "parental bill of rights," created a situation where teachers would be forced to out LGBTQIA students. This bill strengthens that dynamic and inflicts strict penalties against educators who don’t comply. It does provide a very weak provision if educators feel the student is at risk - but risk is incredibly difficult to gauge on matters of identity and home life. This bill would jeopardize the safety of LGBTQIA+ students who do not live in an affirming home, and remove the likelihood that students would be able to build foundational trust with safe adults in their lives in all areas by turning educators into a tool of surveillance. The original bill text can be read by clicking the bill number. The committee hearings & public record of the bill can be watched and reviews at the “Bill Hearings & Public Record” linked above.