In light of the recent efforts at the state level around the United States to negatively target transgender people by limiting or banning access to gender-affirming medical care, the New Hampshire Youth Movement has created the following petition:
We demand that the New Hampshire state lawmakers enact policies to protect the medical privacy of transgender people who receive gender-affirming physical and mental health care in this state. All people, including transgender and other LGBTQ+ individuals, deserve the ability to access essential health care services without fear of punishment or threats to their medical privacy. Unfortunately, the implementation of laws in other states that either restrict or ban gender-affirming care has led to the targeting of transgender individuals, their medical care providers, and supportive family members and friends. Some of these states have even sought to prosecute transgender residents who travel to other states to receive gender-affirming care.
Though gender-affirming care remains legal in New Hampshire, transgender patients coming to New Hampshire from other states and the medical professionals who treat them are now exposed to harassment by some out-of-state officials. As such, we call on New Hampshire state legislators to take proactive action to make our state a legal sanctuary for gender-affirming care by adopting protections for transgender patients' medical privacy in state law. Specifically, we call on NH state lawmakers to support HB 368, a bill before the state legislature that would establish a shield law for gender-affirming health care.
[This petition was created by the New Hampshire Youth Movement as part of a wider campaign to make New Hampshire a safe haven state for gender-affirming care. If you have any questions or would like to get more involved with this campaign, reach out to Hayden at hayden@nhyouthmovement.org.]