Why We Need HB 396, State Recognition of Biological Sex

HB 396, dealing with the ability to distinguish based on biological sex, is up for a Senate vote this week. Why is the bill important?

Given its potential reach and impact, HB 396 plays a crucial role in the future trajectory of policies across the board that impact biological women and men. 

HB 396, by simply clarifying that institutions do have the ability to distinguish based on biological sex under NH law, will give schools and other organizations a path to making policy they believe best serves our children and population as a whole.  It will lay the foundation for a broad redress of policies that are, right now, hurting girls and women.

HB 396 is needed because of vulnerable children like Samia’s daughter in Milford forced to share bathroom facilities with biological males, as well as the girls being subjected to an identical situation in Interlakes.

These children don’t have options when faced with this untenable situation in their schools. If you’re a child, you have no control over your location, where you go to school. Unless your family uproots you and moves to a state that still recognizes biological sex, you will be forced to pay the price for harmful ideology that threatens your privacy and sense of personal safety. 

It won’t end here. Prisoners will be the next victims. Our DOJ, judging from the example they’ve already set in bathrooms, locker rooms, and athletics, is going to ramp up their pressure on the Department of Corrections to follow in California’s footsteps. Our prisoners cannot control where they go. So and again, we’ve seen the main reason that we are handicapped from fighting in these areas is that people like weak school board members can be intimidated by progressive education lawyers and superintendents who insist that separating restrooms or other facilities based on biological sex is somehow a violation of non-discrimination law. We need absolute clarity to counter that insidious and wrong argument.

So HB 396 is absolutely needed to address ongoing harm to real children that have no other recourse for the relief that they need other than the passage of this bill. It is vital we pass HB 396 to ensure organizations are able to make common-sense distinctions based on biological sex, free from intentional progressive distortion of NH law.

Edit as of 7/19/24:

HB 396 successfully passed the Senate, unamended, along party lines. However, Governor Sununu vetoed this critical legislation on July 18, 2024. Read Cornerstone’s full statement on the veto here.

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