New Hampshire became the latest state to challenge the ethics of gender-altering procedures on minors with a new law Gov. Chris Sununu signed on July 19. Twenty-six states—more than half—now have laws either partially or completely banning gender-altering treatments for minors.
Sununu, a Republican who is generally considered a social moderate, signed House Bill 619, which outlaws gender-altering genital surgeries on children under age 18. Last week, Sununu also signed House Bill 1205, banning biological males in grades 5 through 12 from competing in girls’ sports, and House Bill 1312, giving parents an opt-out option for any public school instruction that includes LGBTQ topics.
Sununu vetoed a fourth bill, House Bill 396, that would have allowed businesses and government entities to separate bathrooms, locker rooms, prisons and mental health facilities on the basis of biological sex. The governor argued that the bill addresses a problem that isn’t an issue in his state—something conservative groups disputed.
No Child Gender Surgeries
HB 619, which takes effect Jan. 1, bars doctors from performing any “genital gender reassignment surgery” on minors. Physicians breaking the law would be subject to disciplinary action by their licensing board and could be sued by the minor patient or their parents up to two years after the surgery.
“[HB 619] ensures that life altering, irreversible surgeries will not be performed on children,” Sununu said in signing the children’s gender surgery ban. “This bill focuses on protecting the health and safety of New Hampshire’s children and has earned bipartisan support. There is a reason that countries across the world—from Sweden to Norway, France, and the United Kingdom—have taken steps to pause these procedures and policies.”
In April, a long-awaited report commissioned by England’s National Health Service (NHS) validated mounting concerns in Europe and elsewhere that the use of gender treatments for sexually confused children are not “evidence-based” and warrant “extreme caution.”
The Cass Review, led by prominent British pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass, took four years to complete. With the report’s release, the NHS in England and Wales made permanent what began last year as an interim ban on puberty blockers and other hormone drugs for children younger than 16.
The issue should get legal clarity by next summer. In late June, the Supreme Court announced it would hear a case from Tennessee in its next term that challenges that state’s gender treatment ban for minors.
New Hampshire’s requirement that parents may opt children out of public school instruction that includes discussion of LGBTQ issues, in addition to the law banning males from female-only sports, drew praise from state GOP lawmakers and predictable scorn from LGBTQ activists.
For evangelical Christians, the issue of human sexuality finds clarity in the teaching of Scripture, not in the whims of culture. Genesis 1:27 teaches: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
