Mackenzie West, who moved to New Hampshire last year, is doubting her future in the Granite State because of Republican-led bills surrounding transgender issues.

Laura Brigada of Hudson, argues the same bills are about preserving safety in women’s spaces.

Lawmakers on Tuesday heard dueling arguments on House Bill 148, which would permit the separation of people based on biological sex, as opposed to gender identification, in bathrooms and other areas. The public hearing positioned the safety, privacy and rights of women and transgender people at odds as supporters of each viewpoint passionately made their case to legislators.

West, who lives in Pembroke, said bills like this one make her worry that her new home state is becoming less welcoming to transgender people.

“I moved here because I knew I would be safe in employment, housing [and] public life, and that I would have a bright future,” West told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. “However, with the chilling effects of this bill and the many like this, I question my future in this state, how safe I will be and whether or not this is really the best place for not only myself but for other trans people like me.”

Brigada, on the other hand, said she feels threatened by the possibility of men coming into women’s bathrooms. If she’s caught in an uncomfortable situation, she said she wants the law on her side.

“Without the law, I am always wondering when I leave that, ‘Well, am I going to have a safe bathroom?’ And most of the time I conclude it’s not worth it,” Brigada said.

West and Brigada were two of many people who shared their thoughts on the bill during the three-hour public hearing.

HB 148 would allow all sporting events and competitions to separate participants based on biological sex and allow schools, prisons and mental health hospitals to do the same for bathrooms and locker rooms. The bill would not mandate this separation, but it would make it so these specific cases would no longer be considered violations of New Hampshire’s anti-discrimination laws.

Other transgender-related bills are also making their way through the Legislature, like a parental bill of rights that deals with the question of parental involvement and the potentially negative impacts of requiring schools to share certain information — like a child’s gender identity — with parents.

In 2018, former governor Chris Sununu signed the expansion of the state’s civil rights laws that included gender identity as a class protected against discrimination. And when a bill on biological sex narrowly passed the Legislature last year, Sununu vetoed it, saying it sought to solve problems that hadn’t come up in New Hampshire.

Jim Kofalt, a state representative from the Monadnock region, disagrees with the former governor’s assessment. He sponsored HB 148 alongside 13 other high-ranking Republicans and said these issues have come up in three different school districts across New Hampshire.

“These are absolutely things that have presented themselves and, I think, will continue to present themselves,” Kofalt told the Monitor. “I believe that we need to come to some kind of a resolution where we’re all able to navigate the new normal and live together as well as we can.”

Gov. Kelly Ayotte has not staked out a position on this specific bill. Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kofalt, who is a former school board chair, said while testifying on his bill that he wants to give school boards discretion over their own bathroom and athletics policies. He told the committee that local school districts are caught in a “precarious position.” They’re legally required to allow transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice, he said, but face confusion and concerns over this requirement from parents.

“We do need to respect everyone, but the respect is a two-way street,” Kofalt said in an interview. “We need to offer the level of flexibility that allows school boards, for example, to come up with practical, real-world solutions that work for people without, you know, walking on eggshells in fear that you’re going to get sued.”

During the hearing, he also attempted to dispel allegations of transphobia.

“I have had people express a concern that this bill is transphobic. I have had people express a concern that there is an underlying belief that transgender people are inherently predatory. I absolutely do not believe that,” Kofalt said. “What I will say is that this provides a loophole for people who may not actually present themselves as transgender at all to gain access to spaces that, practically speaking, they should not have access to.”

Members of the public and lawmakers alike had doubts about how the bill would define biological sex and how it could be enforced. Would schools need to check a child’s sex before they enter the restroom? Would people have to submit their birth certificate to prove the sex assigned to them at birth? The bill, in its current form, doesn’t say.

Most opponents worried that aside from discriminating against transgender people, it’d put them in danger and subject them to increased scrutiny. Many trans people who spoke said they want to enjoy the same rights as everyone else.

“Throughout the day, I sometimes need to use the bathroom like any other student. This is nothing but a normal part of my day. I use the bathroom, and I am gone. No harm done to anyone else, and no one’s privacy is compromised,” said Maëlle Jacques, a 17-year-old who plays on the girls’ soccer team at Kearsarge Regional High School. “Banning me from the restroom does nothing but pin me as a pariah in school. Using the male restroom would be dangerous because, as the entire school knows and has known for years, I am not a male. In the male restroom, I would face bullying for my identity, not to mention psychological harm by being forced to be someone I’m not.”

Others, who want more restrictions on bathroom use, said they worry about their own safety and that of their kids.

Brigada said she does fear men coming into women’s bathrooms and she has since New Hampshire’s anti-discrimination law expanded in 2018. Specifically, she worries that men could enter into women’s bathrooms, claiming that they’re transgender women, just to gain access.

“How can we go into a bathroom and not be afraid of seeing a man, about not being able to speak up if something is going wrong?” Brigada said. “That is the key to women’s bathrooms: the idea that women are collectively aware of what goes on and that we speak up as soon as something is going wrong. That we’re not waiting for somebody to get raped, that we’re not waiting for some man to commit a sex act, that we’re not wondering if some man is in this bathroom for a sexual thrill. Ick.”

Parental rights in education

HB 148 wasn’t the only bill to draw both sides of the trans rights debate to the State House this week. On Tuesday, Republicans introduced their latest attempt at a parental bill of rights.

The bill would compel every public school district to write a policy to “promote parental involvement in the public school system.” Other provisions would include a parent’s right to access health information and make decisions about their child’s healthcare, education and religious and moral upbringing.

A proposed amendment to the bill would remove some punishments for violations of the parental bill of rights but would still classify those violations as misdemeanor criminal offenses.

The vast majority of the rights outlined in this bill are already enshrined in state and federal law, so some people questioned why it’s necessary. While the bill doesn’t specify anything about gender identity, some worry it’ll open the door for parental notification laws, which in some states require teachers and school personnel to disclose a child’s gender identity to parents.

Sarah Tirrell, whose daughter Parker is suing the state of New Hampshire over the transgender athlete ban that went into effect last year, said she’s “deeply troubled” by that possibility.

“When my daughter came out to me, it was in a moment of immense trust and vulnerability,” Tirrell said. “I could see the anxiety on her face. Even though she had no reason to doubt our love, she was still afraid of how her father and I might react. That moment belonged to her, to our family. If someone at her school had taken that decision away from her, I would have been devastated. No one, especially a child, should be forced to reveal something so personal before they are ready.”

Kofalt, who’s also a cosponsor of that bill, told the Monitor that although many of the provisions in this new parental bill of rights are already outlined in New Hampshire law, he thinks it’s important to empower parents and remind them of their rights.

“This is the Legislature affirming, emphatically, that parents are primarily responsible for their children and no one has a right to intervene or disrupt that unless there’s some kind of finding of abuse or neglect,” Kofalt said.

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.