‘Trying the same thing again isn’t going to get a different result’: Ayotte vetoes anti-trans bill

A Republican effort to keep transgender people out of restrooms, sports teams, and other spaces in New Hampshire that align with their gender identity has again been stymied in the State House’s corner office.

Gov. Kelly Ayotte vetoed Senate Bill 552, sometimes called a “bathroom bill,” Friday. The bill would’ve created exceptions to New Hampshire’s 2018 Law Against Discrimination, which legally protects people from discrimination on factors such as race, religion, age, and “gender identity.” The bill would allow business owners to prevent transgender people from entering the restroom or locker room not associated with their sex at birth, sports teams to keep transgender girls and women off female teams, and jails and prisons to categorize inmates by sex at birth. It doesn’t require business owners, sports teams, and jails and prisons to do so, but it does give them the option.

Supporters of the bill have argued that transgender girls and women have an unfair advantage in female sports and have claimed that men pretend to be transgender to enter women’s locker rooms. A recent controversy at Concord’s Planet Fitness, where a woman has publicly complained about what she says was a man acting creepy in the women’s locker room, has been used as evidence by the bill’s proponents.

Opponents argued it creates more issues than it fixes (notably, they point to recent incidents where masculine-appearing cisgender women have reportedly been accused of being trans), that it isn’t feasible for business owners to determine someone’s sex at birth before they enter a restroom, and that it is cruel to transgender people.

“I have continued to ask the Legislature to address this issue in a thoughtful, narrow way while protecting the privacy, safety, and rights of all Granite Staters,” the Republican governor wrote in a veto message. “Unfortunately, there is minimal difference between this bill, the bill I vetoed earlier this year, the one I vetoed last year, and the one vetoed in 2024 by Governor Sununu. Trying the same thing again isn’t going to get a different result. For this reason, I have vetoed Senate Bill 552.”

Ayotte was referencing the fact that this is the fourth time this type of bill is being vetoed.

In 2024, Ayotte’s predecessor, Gov. Chris Sununu, vetoed House Bill 396, which contained near verbatim language. He wrote in his veto message that the bill “runs contrary to New Hampshire’s Live Free or Die spirit,” and “seeks to solve problems that have not presented themselves.”

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In 2025, after Ayotte won election to the governor’s office, the conservatives behind the effort tried again with House Bill 148, again a near verbatim copy. Ayotte said she agreed with the lawmakers’ sentiment, writing that “there are important and legitimate privacy and safety concerns raised by biological males using places such as female locker rooms and being placed in female correctional facilities.” However, she still vetoed, arguing “at the same time, I see that House Bill 148 is overly broad and impractical to enforce, potentially creating an exclusionary environment for some of our citizens.” 

Earlier this year, Senate Bill 268 was sent to Ayotte with the same language. She again vetoed.

Friday’s decision marks the fourth veto for the legislation. However, it could get a fifth veto in the coming weeks. Lawmakers in both chambers of the state Legislature passed a separate bill — House Bill 1442 — that is also a verbatim copy of the other four.

Ayotte has inspired the wrath of the right flank of her own party on the issue. Conservative Christian advocacy group Cornerstone Action is now urging supporters on social media to “contact the Governor’s office with your disappointment and let Governor Ayotte know you stand with fairness and safety!” Meanwhile, left-leaning and LGBTQ groups like the Kent Street Coalition, GLAD Law, and 603 Equality celebrated the veto.

Lawmakers can override the veto with a two-thirds majority vote, but supporters will face an uphill battle convincing enough of the 175 House Democrats (out of 390 total representatives currently in the lower chamber) to do so. The Legislature will meet later this year to hold that vote.

But if that doesn’t happen, Lisa Mazur, the Goffstown Republican who sponsored HB 1442 is committed to sending the legislation to the governor’s desk a sixth time next year. She and other supporters held a rally outside the governor’s corner office in the State House Wednesday before the veto in an unsuccessful effort to convince the governor to sign the bill. The rally was held simultaneously with an opposing group of trangender advocates pushing Ayotte to veto.

“If these bills don’t pass, we’re going to bring them back next year,” Mazur told reporters at the event. “We’re going to keep going with this until something changes. We have to do this for our girls and our women.”