A New Hampshire bill requiring school officials to tell parents if their children are changing their “gender identity” narrowly failed in the state House on Thursday.
“The bill had passed the GOP-dominated Senate in March along party lines. But while Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the 400-member House, Democrats had a one-vote edge in attendance for Thursday’s session,” the Associated Press reported.
The bill was ultimately defeated 195-190, with two Republicans siding with Democrats to oppose it. The bill sought to “establish a consistent mechanism for parents to be notified of information relating to the health, well-being, and educational progress of their minor children while those children are in the custody and control of the public schools.”
Lawmakers also voted to “indefinitely postpone the bill, meaning it cannot be revisited this session, according to the report.
House Majority Leader Jason Osborne said:
This will send a message to parents that they must continue, until the next election when they can replace their representatives, to accept that school is a mysterious and secretive black box where they deposit their children, who knows what happens inside that box and who knows what comes out the other side.
Gov. Chris Sununu (R) notably vetoed a similar bill last year that would have required schools to notify parents if their children were identifying as a different sex than they were born as. Sununu said on Wednesday that he supported the new bill, the report states.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy reacted to the bill’s failure on Twitter, saying a bill that shores up parental rights “should not be controversial.”
“Time to empower parents again,” he added.
Opponents of the bill claimed it would have exposed LGBTQ+ students to possible abuse at home.
“If I have to keep a record and call every one of those parents every single time I see Susie and Sally hugging in the hallway, we will never have another public school teacher again,” Democrat Rep. Linda Ryan said. “I strongly encourage you to go to your public schools and substitute for less than $100 a day and see for your very own self what this bill will do to our public schools and our teachers.”