CONCORD, NH - The New Hampshire House today voted 201 -166 to advance a bill that would take away rights from LGBTQ+ Granite Staters, with particular harm for transgender people. 

There are a lot of updates for this upcoming week. This is the time for us to be more visible than ever so please join us at the state house at 9am on Thursday to show our reps that we will not stop fighting for our rights.

CONCORD, NH - Today, the New Hampshire House Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee heard two bills that would ban medically necessary, live-saving care that transgender young people need. 

Protect Trans Rights in Concord next week!

Next week we’re facing an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+, especially anti-trans, bills at the state house. These bills cruelly seek to cut off access to life-affirming, medically necessary healthcare for young transgender people, forcibly “out” students in school, and expand discrimination against transgender athletes to college athletics.

A group of Republicans are again trying to pass a bill to keep transgender people out of bathrooms and sports teams that align with their gender identity.

The transgender community and allies showed up to push back against this proposed bill, reinforcing the argument that the bill seeks to address a nonexistent problem while unfairly targeting the transgender community.

A 2025 Update from 603 Equality.

This new year came with a new administration that has left many of us fearful, angry, and vulnerable. While there is so much uncertainty in the legislative world, 603 Equality is constantly thinking about how to prevent the most harm in the short term and move toward a long-term vision outlined in our mission.

The U.S. House handily approved the annual defense policy bill Wednesday, despite late opposition from Democrats over a provision that bans military health insurance coverage for service members’ children seeking transgender care.

Lawmakers passed the historically bipartisan package 241-180. In the end, 81 Democrats supported the bill, and 16 Republicans voted against it. The measure now heads to the Senate.

Attorneys for the teens suing the state over its new anti-transgender sports law said they plan to object in federal court to dismissing state Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut as a defendant.

On Friday, the state asked U.S. District Court Chief Judge Landya McCafferty to remove Edelblut from the lawsuit brought by the families of Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle. Lawyers on both sides filed a joint motion Wednesday to extend the deadline for the plaintiffs to object from Dec. 20 to Jan. 10 to accommodate tight schedules during the holiday season.

The sky was already dark when people began to gather by the Franklin Pierce statue in front of the State House in downtown Concord Wednesday evening.  Jessica Goff passed out electric candles while another volunteer set up 30 jars on the granite step, placing a candle in each and a small card with a portrait and a description leaning against the front.  

Each jar represented a transgender person who had been murdered in the past year.

Two lawsuits about transgender girl athletes — one challenging a state ban at schools and the other on the right to protest their participation on girls teams — face federal court hearings in New Hampshire on Thursday.

With this week’s election of Donald Trump as president and Kelly Ayotte as New Hampshire’s governor, we want to let everyone know that 603 Equality is still here, advocating for the rights and well-being of the LGBTQIA+ community in our state. We have not, and will not, give up the fight.

Cannon has a message for the state’s transgender community: “Don’t panic. There is another day. We did make some big strides over the last couple of years.

“The big thing for the transgender community is they’re not alone,” she added. “They’ve got a lot of people here who will stand up and fight. It’s not over.”

The elections have tightened across the United States, and anti-trans ads have become a major part of the 2024 campaign cycle. As such, the risk has substantially raised for nationwide laws targeting transgender people in the coming years for both youth and adults.

For states, the state of Texas has been upgraded to Do Not Travel, only the second state to receive such a recommendation. This comes as Odessa, Texas becomes the first city in the nation to pass a $10,000 bounty on transgender people inside of bathrooms.

A study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics finds that transgender teenagers who have pursued medical interventions like puberty blockers and hormones are highly satisfied with their care.

“Regret was very rare,” says lead author Kristina Olson, a psychology professor at Princeton University.

It’s the latest research from the TransYouth Project, which Olson started in 2013, when transgender youth was a fairly obscure research area, far from the political limelight.