CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE – On Saturday, March 6th Representatives Gerri Cannon (D-Somersworth) and Lisa Bunker (D-Exeter) joined 5 other state legislators from across the country to condemn the Tuberville amendment and call on the US Senate to pass the Equality Act. Full letter is attached, and excerpts are below:
“If Amendment 1386 was adopted, Senator Tuberville would have potentially subjected girls – cisgender and transgender alike – to humiliating and traumatizing searches of their anatomy by adults in order to prove whether their reproductive systems were female enough for them to count as girls. This amendment was designed to force state and local educational organizations to discriminate against transgender students, requiring them to deliberately act in violation of federal civil rights laws. It would have also negated the successful systems in place in more than a dozen states that welcome all student athletes to participate in sports and learn the leadership, confidence and self-respect that comes from playing on a team. We should be promoting the examples set in states that have taken action to be more inclusive and welcoming, not regress toward exclusion.”
“As state legislators, we share a commitment to constituent service, working to better the lives of those we represent each day. Supporting equality is constituent service; this means protecting and welcoming all of our student constituents. We call on the U.S. Senate to swiftly bring the Equality Act to the Senate floor for a vote to pass this critical legislation. We urge our state colleagues to pass legislation that helps all of our constituents, including those who are LGBTQIA+, instead of attacking the very people we are all elected to serve.”
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