On Thursday, NH state senators will vote on yet another bill in a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ activity. The latest volley, SB 341, is a forced outing bill that inhibits trusting relationships between students, parents, and teachers. The full Senate will vote on it Thursday, March 21. When our child let my wife and I know that they are trans, they told us that they had been considering this for months, working up both their own certainty, and their comfort in telling us, their parents. We have consistently affirmed their identity and tried to both love them and be worthy of the trust they showed us, but I keep thinking about those “months.” If they had needed someone else to confide in before telling us this important truth, I would want my kid, and others to find the support they need.
Under SB 341, students will share less information with their teachers because teachers would be required to document a broad range of personal information a student shares with them so that they would be prepared to thoroughly answer potential parent questions. Parents and teachers should be partners, but this bill pits them against each other. Both the intended and unintended consequences of SB 341 harm trans kids like mine, and make it harder to develop trusting relationships in a school community. I urge readers to contact your senators and ask them to vote against this bill.
Jonah Sutton-Morse
Canterbury