PORTSMOUTH — LGBTQ+ legislators and advocates in New Hampshire are gearing up for the Portsmouth Pride celebration while fighting a trio of bills they say would do harm to the state’s transgender population.
New Hampshire House Rep. Alice Wade, D-Dover, and state Sen. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, D-Portsmouth, will attend the Saturday, June 21 Portsmouth Pride downtown parade and festival with the bills in mind, two of which bar gender-affirming care for minors.
Wade is a transgender first-term representative considering a run for U.S. Congress in New Hampshire’s First District.
“There are a lot of targeted attacks all across the board,” Wade said. “At least personally, I started gender-affirming care as a minor. It saved my life. The fact that I keep seeing and hearing Republicans make these arguments, it’s just utterly clear to me they have no idea what these actual treatments are like. They have no idea how incredibly beneficial and life-saving they can be. Or they do and they don’t care.”
An LGBTQ+ flag hangs off South Church on State Street in Portsmouth June 18, 2025.
New Hampshire legislation on transgender rights
House Bill 712 would outlaw gender-affirming chest surgery for people under 18 years of age, while House Bill 377 would ban medical providers from administering hormone treatments or puberty blockers for minors. Both bills have been criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and are being reviewed by state lawmakers in conference committees.
A third bill, House Bill 148, would allow state businesses and organizations to divide bathrooms, services, programs, sports teams, locker rooms and more by biological sex, rolling back protections for transgender people in the 2018 anti-discrimination law signed by former Gov. Chris Sununu. Gov. Kelly Ayotte has not yet signed the bill into law.
Portsmouth Pride excitement tempered: Families leaving NH
Portsmouth Pride is organized by New Hampshire Outright, formerly known as Seacoast Outright. The parade, beginning Saturday at 12:45 p.m., will feature bands and an appearance from Robin Fierce, a contestant on Season 15 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” during the procession through downtown Portsmouth.
The festivities include a sold-out, adults-only Thomas Laighton cruise ship ride through Portsmouth Harbor on June 20, after-parties for youth and adults and drag brunches on June 21 and June 22.
Youths are seen walking in the 2022 Portsmouth Pride parade. The 2025 parade is scheduled Saturday, June 21.
Excitement for the weekend is coupled with fear of additional setbacks. Heidi Carrington Heath, executive director of New Hampshire Outright, has worked with and is aware of six families who have moved out of New Hampshire in the last few years due to threats against medical care for transgender youth.
New Hampshire, she said, is the land of individual liberties, as outlined in the state’s motto. Threats to care for transgender people run counter to that commitment, she added.
“I think we’ll see more families leave New Hampshire,” she predicted. “As a state whose population is increasingly aging, that should impact all of us and be of concern. That should be on our radar. I am perpetually thinking about New Hampshire as a state where every child can grow up, live free and thrive. That is not our direction. We’re moving in a bad direction. When I walk into spaces with parents and caregivers right now, you can feel their fear.”
LGBTQ+ advocates nationwide were dealt a blow June 18 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ban in Tennessee against gender-affirming hormone therapies for transgender minors.
The ACLU of New Hampshire noted the ruling applies only to Tennessee and not to other states’ laws.
“The Supreme Court’s decision today is a devastating moment and a painful setback for transgender youth, their families, and their doctors,” ACLU of New Hampshire executive director Devon Chaffee said in a June 18 statement. “Importantly, this decision does not change current law in New Hampshire – but it does mean that we must make it overwhelmingly clear that any future bans on this critical healthcare cannot be allowed in the Granite State. Transgender young people and their families are not alone in the road ahead: we will continue to fight in courtrooms and communities across the country to ensure all people — including transgender people — have the dignity and equality they deserve and the freedom to shape their own futures.”
If either House Bill 712 or House Bill 377 are signed into law, New Hampshire would become the 26th state in the country to enact such bans against gender-affirming care and the first in New England, according to the nonprofit Movement Advancement Project.
A call for New Hampshire to be ‘fully inclusive’
In 2020, Perkins Kwoka became the first openly LGBTQ+ woman elected to the New Hampshire Senate.
“We’re looking forward to attending Pride this weekend and looking forward to standing together with the LGBTQ+ community,” said Perkins Kwoka, the New Hampshire Senate minority leader. “I think New Hampshire and our country is at its best when it’s fully inclusive and embracing all our friends and neighbors.”
Perkins Kwoka and Wade called on their fellow lawmakers to support the creation of new affordable housing statewide, accessible health and child care, and to strengthen public education.
“I can imagine if you went out and you talked to a million voters, you would struggle to find a single one whose top issue is who gets to play middle school soccer,” Wade said. “People generally do not care about the ins and outs of trans health care and these sorts of things because it doesn’t affect them. We need to be focusing on affordable housing, affordable health care and affordable child care. These are the issues that are hurting people’s lives.”
“In terms of Pride, I think it really is important to not allow everything that’s happening to put a damper on the sense of community. In a lot of ways I feel like if the attacks are to try and make me feel demoralized, I want to do the opposite and I want to do everything I can. I think the community feels the same way,” she added. “Pride is a way to stay engaged, (to) maintain a sense of community and camaraderie in these dark times we’re living in.”
A spokesperson for Gov. Kelly Ayotte did not respond June 18 to a request for comment.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth Pride 2025: A time to unite and celebrate despite setbacks
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