New Hampshire legislature blocks bill on transgender rights
Source: Reuters
POLITICS | Thu Mar 9, 2017 | 1:49pm EST
New Hampshire legislature blocks bill on transgender rights
By Scott Malone
State legislators in New Hampshire narrowly blocked a bill on Thursday that would have prohibited discrimination against transgender people, including allowing them to use the public bathrooms that match the gender with which they identify.
Transgender rights are a politically charged issue in the United States. Supporters say bills like the one blocked on Thursday protect people who do not conform to their birth gender, while opponents say they could give cover to voyeurs and sexual predators.
The 187-179 vote by the Republican-controlled New Hampshire House of Representatives to table the bill without debate came one day after Governor Chris Sununu, also a Republican, said he had no position on the matter.
Many Democrats had supported the bill.
"With Sununu's support, the bill, which was tabled by a slim margin, would be on its way to the corner office," said Ray Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. "His silence and apathy are a tacit endorsement of discrimination, and he will have to live with the fact that he denied many transgender people the freedom that is granted through equality under the law."
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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-hampshire-lgbt-idUSKBN16G2PE