NH LGBTQ+ leaders see 'dark times' with Trump presidency, vow to fight for equality
Alice Wade, a 2024 college graduate who won Tuesday in her first run for the New Hampshire House of Representatives, struck a somber rather than celebratory tone Wednesday. She was asked to reflect on the future of transgender rights in the Granite State.
“It is a very dark time for trans people and queer people in general,” Wade said.
Wade, a transgender woman and Dover Democrat, is concerned about Republican President-elect Donald Trump, whose campaign relentlessly targeted transgender people in TV advertisements, as well Republican Gov.-elect Kelly Ayotte, who endorsed Trump.
Wade, an aerospace engineer, is also concerned about Republican leadership in the State House and U.S. Senate, which flipped red.
In 2018, Gov. Chris Sununu, who did not seek re-election, signed into law a bill banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity. But in July 2024, he signed into law a bill preventing any physician from performing “genital gender reassignment surgery” on minors and signed another banning transgender girls in grades 5 to 12 from playing on girls’ sports teams. Enforcement of the latter law was subsequently blocked by a federal court in September.
The passage of recent laws sparked Wade, a 2024 University of New Hampshire mechanical engineering graduate, to begin advocacy work and ultimately to run for the state House of Representatives. Her fight to protect other transgender people in New Hampshire has only just begun, albeit in the minority party of the House chamber.
Transgender leaders and advocates in New Hampshire are encouraging transgender youth, adults and supporters across the state to continue fighting for their rights, despite gender-affirming care becoming a focal point of presidential political campaign commercials in recent months.
Trump targets transgender athletes, mocks pronouns
One Trump commercial played frequently on TV in recent weeks attacked Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2019 support for gender-affirming care for people in jail, and criticized transgender athletes playing girls sports.
“Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you,” the Trump-approved ad states.
Wade expects the next state legislative session to feature bills attacking access to gender-affirming care and a possible return of a bathroom bill. In July, Sununu vetoed a bill that would have outlined such restrictions against transgender people in New Hampshire.
Bathroom laws have been enacted in Florida and Texas, requiring people to use the bathroom that aligns with their sex assigned at birth. These are two states where Wade could consider working in the future because they are home to aerospace companies.
“If I wanted to start a new job, I would have to work around those restrictions because I can’t move to a state where I’m going to go to jail just for using the restroom,” Wade said. “That’s just not feasible. There’s this constant 'otherization' that the Republicans have been doing for many years at this point, particularly with immigrants, but more recently they’ve seen transgender people as a political weapon they can use.”
For her safety, Alice Wade’s fiance offered to move to Massachusetts or another state after legislative restrictions targeting transgender people were signed into law in New Hampshire. Wade turned down that offer.
“I refused because I don’t want to escape when I know there are so many families in New Hampshire that can’t just pick up their lives and move,” Wade said. “We can’t give up and go away and let other people suffer because of these terrible bills.”
Ayotte campaign responds to concerns
Wade said she expects Ayotte to sign any bill with restrictions against transgender people that comes to her desk. John Corbett, a spokesperson for the governor-elect’s campaign, responded to the claim on Wednesday.
“Kelly is going to be a governor for all of New Hampshire and will always work across the aisle to protect the rights of all Granite Staters,” Corbett said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
New Hampshire House's first trans woman legislator speaks out
Wade’s election on Tuesday came as Sarah McBride, a state senator in Delaware, became the first transgender person elected to U.S. Congress. It also comes as state Rep. Gerri Cannon, a Somersworth Democrat and one of the first two openly transgender women to serve in the New Hampshire House, is set to retire from state government.
Cannon, 71, was an adolescent when she began feeling different from her male peers. She was taunted and teased at school, and it wasn’t until the “advent of the Internet” in the 1990s when Cannon was able to find stories of people who experienced exactly what she’d been feeling for decades.
Since 2006, Cannon has been living fully as a transgender woman. She changed her birth certificate roughly eight years ago to reflect her gender identity, in case she was traveling through a state with laws restricting transgender people.
Cannon has a message for the state’s transgender community: “Don’t panic. There is another day. We did make some big strides over the last couple of years.
“The big thing for the transgender community is they’re not alone,” she added. “They’ve got a lot of people here who will stand up and fight. It’s not over.”
Still, she feels worried for the future of the state’s transgender community amid recent proposals from legislators and ongoing efforts to bar transgender girls from playing on school sports teams.
“This makes the trans population feel threatened especially because of the 2025 efforts underway. I’m feeling more and more like a second-class citizen. Am I American and am I free? It doesn’t feel like it. It feels like a separate class and that hurts,” Cannon said.
Targeting LGBTQ+ rights called part of political 'playbook'
Emmett Soldati, owner of Teatotaller in Concord and Dover, ran and lost election for the state Executive Council this year.
His businesses have been safe havens for LGBTQ+ people over the years. Teatotaller has been targeted by neo-Nazi group protests and has been on the receiving end of hateful rhetoric.
In a second Trump presidency, Soldati believes the rights of all LGBTQ+ people are threatened. In New Hampshire, he said the “playbook” used by some Republican candidates for the state legislature who won Tuesday focused on “demonizing and threatening people of the LGBTQ community.”
“We need to stay strong and vigilant to make sure that we aren’t creating an environment that feels even more hostile in a state that touts civil liberties as its core mantra,” he said Wednesday.
Soldati, a Somersworth resident, encouraged Granite Staters not to succumb to “outside pressure and prejudice” when it comes to LGBTQ rights and to focus on issues that can be controlled locally to create change.
Transgender New Hampshire residents and other LGBTQ people do not deserve the “harm and demonization” that they’ve been subjected to in bills and from lawmakers, Soldati added.
“Too many politicians have allowed for this issue to gain currency because if you can’t run on your economic platform or your health-care platform or other social platform, you move to fear,” he said.
The Rev. Heidi Carrington Heath, executive director of Seacoast Outright in Portsmouth, which serves LGBTQ+ youth, offered a message of hope.
"This is a very hard moment for the LGBTQ+ community in New Hampshire, and beyond,” she said in a prepared statement, reacting to Trump's election. “Acutely so for our youth. If you are an LGBTQ+ youth in New Hampshire, we want you to know that you matter, and are deeply loved. There are so many people who love you, and are ready to stand with you. We will keep working for a Granite State where you are not only safe, but celebrated for all of who you are."
Trevor Project data on LGBTQ+ youth mental health in America
The Trevor Project, a nonprofit focusing on LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention efforts, released its 2024 report in May.
The survey polled over 18,000 American LGBTQ+ people 13 to 24 years old.
Roughly 39% seriously attempted suicide in the year prior, 46% of whom are transgender and nonbinary young people, according to the findings.
“Among transgender and nonbinary young people, 13% reported being on gender-affirming hormones, and 2% reported taking puberty blockers,” the 2024 report reads. “Sixty-one percent who were on gender-affirming hormones were somewhat or very concerned about losing access to this care.”
A total of 90% of respondents reported their well-being had been negatively impacted due to recent politics, while 45% of transgender or nonbinary young people were found to have considered moving to a new state because of LGBTQ+-related laws where they reside.
Rates of attempted suicide among young LGBTQ+ Indigenous or people of color in America were higher than white respondents, the report states.
(This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Sarah McBride's name.)