Today the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted for final passage of HB 587, a bill to ban the discredited and dangerous practice of conversion therapy on minors. Today’s vote to concur on the Senate version of the bill sends the legislation to Governor Sununu for signing.

GLAD Executive Director Janson Wu issued the following statement:

Today the New Hampshire legislature voted to affirm and support LGBTQ youth, and to ensure they are protected from harmful attempts to change their gender identity or sexual orientation. We should be providing youth across the Granite State with all the support they need to be happy and healthy, and with this vote the legislature is recognizing that forcing youth to change who they are is not only ineffective, but can have devastating consequences.

GLAD is committed to making New England a “conversion therapy” free region, and we are thrilled to have the Granite State join Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island in sending the clear message to LGBTQ youth that they are beautiful just as they are. We are grateful to the bill’s sponsors, supportive legislators, and local advocates, including the ACLU of New Hampshire, for their diligent efforts to see this bill through to final passage this session. We urge Governor Sununu to quickly sign HB 587 into law, to make New Hampshire a safer and more welcoming place for all youth.

GLAD has been working with the ACLU of New Hampshire, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, HRC and other local advocates to encourage passage of this legislation. The bill now goes to Governor Sununu for his signature. If the bill is signed into law, New Hampshire would join eleven other states, including three states in New England – Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island – as well as Washington, D.C., in banning the practice of so-called conversion therapy. Efforts to ban the practice are also underway in Massachusetts and Maine.

###

Through strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and education, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders works in New England and nationally to create a just society free of discrimination based on gender identity and expression, HIV status, and sexual orientation.