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.
how much time did legislators flush down the toilet?
With 6 proposed bathroom and locker room bans across two legislative bodies, the State House has flushed a lot of time right down the toilet. This year’s tally stands at 11 hours, 58 minutes to-date.
STOP the Discriminatory Bathroom and Locker Room Bans
There are 6 pieces of nearly identical pieces of legislation making their way through the NH House and Senate. Let's remind Governor Kelly Ayotte’s that as recently as February, she's vetoed similar legislation. These bills, seek to legalize discrimination for bathrooms, locker rooms, sports, and prisons on the basis of "biological sex" as defined as only "male" and "female,” completely erasing the scientific reality of intersex individuals. These discriminatory policies have no place in NH, and create real world privacy and safety concerns for all Granite Staters.
It’s time to flush bad legislation
🚽It’s time to flush bad legislation.🚽
Our State House has wasted countless hours on bathroom bans this year. Instead of fixing real issues, legislators are hyper focused on the bathroom usage of their constituents.
Let's see who is spending their time in Concord policing toilets instead of addressing the real issues facing NH residents.
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.
HB1788: Bill Hearings & Public Record
HB1788- Eliminating State Contracts with DEI
Official Title: holding state contracts with DEI provisions to be void as a matter of law and establishing a right of action for citizens where public entities or state agencies engage with contracts with DEI provisions.
Bill Sponsors: (Prime) Nalevanko (R), DeRoy (R), Wherry (R), Sweeney (R), Cambrils (R), Berry (R), Ruth Ward (R)
Bill Hearings & Public Record
Summary: HB 1788 is a bill that seeks to immediately terminate all contracts held by state agencies, municipalities, and schools with any organization that references in any of their services. This bill would be in contradiction with federal regulations surrounding Medicare and Medicaid (nursing homes and healthcare providers often are required to have staff take trainings to understand religious differences in care) and school professional development (many PD trainings required by educators must include elements that empower teachers to meet diverse student populations).
LGBTQ Advocates Denounce Passage of Five Nearly Identical “Bathroom Bans” this Month
CONCORD, N.H. - This month, despite an already-bloated legislative docket at the State House and a recently vetoed bathroom ban bill (SB268), the New Hampshire legislature passed five anti-LGBTQ+ bills, with the House of Representatives passing four nearly identical “bathroom ban” bills, and the Senate passing one.
Good News Only Updates: Celebrating Progress in Pride
All the amazing positive updates for the lgbtqia+ community in the granite state
Good News Only Updates: Celebrating Progress in Pride
All the amazing positive updates for the lgbtqia+ community in the granite state
Legislative Updates (02/24/26)
The committee hearings on Friday exec'd that day. For those of you who missed that:
1564 was voted unanimously ITL. We showed up and showed out and it really mattered. This was the bill that sought to remove gender identity from all state statutes.
Two of the bathroom bills were moved to Interim Study with unanimous votes from the committee. 1217 + 1442. 1442 had that extra troubling criminal component.
1299 was recommended OTPA. The amendment designates that for public buildings to adopt this policy, it would also have to offer an individual/gender-neutral bathroom option.
1447 was recommended OTP. Rep MacFarlane did note that he wanted to add an amendment to the bill, and plans to do so on the floor - because he wanted to ensure that public camp sites wouldn’t be subject to the legislation.
There were also updates on bills from the Senate and House sessions
The Senate Approved 16Y-8N, SB434 - another censorship bill.
The Senate voted OTPA 16Y-8N, SB430 - the forced outing bill.
The House voted OTP 184 / 164 on HB1792 - that horrible anti-DEI bill.
Good News Only Updates: Celebrating Progress in Pride
All the amazing positive updates for the lgbtqia+ community in the granite state
Good News Only Updates: Celebrating Progress in Pride
All the amazing positive updates for the lgbtqia+ community in the granite state
Good News Only Updates: Celebrating Progress in Pride
All the amazing positive updates for the lgbtqia+ community in the granite state
Advocates Applaud Governor Ayotte’s Veto of Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill
SB 268 would have rolled back critical nondiscrimination protections for transgender people
Today, Governor Ayotte vetoed SB 268, a bill that would have rolled back critical nondiscrimination protections for transgender and gender nonconforming Granite Staters and imposed unpopular policies such as bathroom bans in New Hampshire.
In 2018, New Hampshire became the first U.S. state to pass an update to its nondiscrimination law to include transgender people through an entirely Republican-controlled House, Senate, and Governor. The bill she vetoed would have rolled back some of those protections for transgender people in public places, including restrooms, making it harder and less safe for an already vulnerable group of Granite Staters to simply go about their daily lives.
Why we oppose HB1345 & HB1132
We have several reasons why we oppose these nearly identical bills.
NH Bulletin: LGBTQ+ couples ask to protect marriage equality in New Hampshire Constitution
From the NH Bulletin:
Kim Lawrence moved to New Hampshire not for its mountains but for its marriage policies.
In 2011, Lawrence had been living with her now-wife in a Western state that did not allow LGBTQ+ people to marry. The Granite State was one of the first states to break that trend and pass marriage equality legislation into law. It was an instant draw.
Now, 15 years later, Lawrence feels less secure. Though the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in the 2015 decision of Obergefell v. Hodges, some LGBTQ+ observers fear the current conservative court could revisit that decision.
Looking Back and Looking Ahead
Although I've never been a big believer in setting New Year's resolutions, I do believe that this month is the perfect time to contemplate what we've accomplished, and to look ahead at the work still left to do. 2025 brought us many things to celebrate.
Why we support CACR25
CACR25 is not a normal bill. It’s a proposed amendment to the NH constitution to establish marriage as a fundamental civil right. With national attacks on marriage equality, it’s essential to enshrine this at the state level.
After the Dobbs decision, we’ve seen how federal law can change the local landscape with devastating consequences.
We are witnessing challenges to Obergefell which ruled marriage equality as the law of the land at the Federal level.
Enshrining existing rights for marriage equality into constitution at the state level will protect other family law-related rights for gay couples.
This pro-active approach has is supported by 80% of NH voters already. Lend your voice!
Laconia Daily Sun: Alton native is 1st executive director for 603 Equality
A statewide organization focused on promoting rights for in the LGBTQ+ community hired its first full-time employee last month, when Alton resident Aimee Terravechia assumed the role of executive director of 603 Equality.
Terravechia, a former sales representative at The Laconia Daily Sun, started her new position Dec. 29. She said this came at a perfect time for the organization — entering its third year of existence — as Jan. 7-8 were the first days of the new legislative session. In her role, she'll strive to be a connection to the Statehouse for lobbying, directing policy and focusing on advocacy work.
HB1442: Bill Hearings & Public Record
HB1442 - Anti-Trans Bathroom Ban
Official Title: limiting the use of certain facilities on the basis of sex and redefining the term "gender identity."
Bill Sponsors:(Prime) Layon (R), Barbour (R), Reinfurt (R), Peternel (R), McGrath (R), Popovici-Muller (R), Sabourin dit Choinière (R), Mazur (R), DeVito (R), Love (R), Birdsell (R), Avard (R), Gannon (R)
Summary: HB 1442 is a bathroom ban bill. This bill seeks to restrict access to “private spaces” on the basis of what the bill sponsor defines as “biological sex” like many of the other proposed bathroom and locker room bans this legislative season. One important thing to note about HB1442 is that it would criminally charges trans bathroom users with "willful trespass" for using a bathroom that doesn’t align with the sex designated on their birth certificate. Additionally, the bill sponsor also singled out trans women, and references the SRY gene as a way to scientifically define sex to a binary, despite the vast number of variations to biological sex that exist. This bill is another example of the state legislature attempting to police the movements of trans people in New Hampshire, despite two separate Governors vetoing three similar bills already. The prime sponsor proposed a floor amendment that does nothing to address concerns brought forth in public testimony and committee hearings. Both the original bill text and the amendment can be read by clicking the bill number.