Apparently, not wanting men in women’s bathrooms and locker rooms is a form of terrorism in 2026. At least, to Senator Debra Altschiller.
It’s no secret that the topic of transgender people and which bathrooms they use or don’t use is a controversial and touchy subject. Here in NH, the transgender epidemic is not as prevalent as it is in other states, but that does not mean that women’s safety is not under attack in the Granite State.
Currently, there are three bills that are actively being reviewed at the state house that protect women’s sports and private spaces, and state that it is not discriminatory to separate sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms by biological sex- HB 1217, HB 1299, and HB 1447. On Tuesday, April 21st, those three bills came forward in a Senate hearing for review and public testimony. While I had the opportunity to speak in support of all three bills, there were an alarming number of people who spoke in opposition of the bills.
There were a number of rhetorics being thrown around from the people in opposition, including that these bills ” are harmful to women”, and that they ” deny the existence of transgender women” ( whatever THAT term means.) Those claims don’t make a lot of sense, do they?
But what happens when a member of the committee reveals their true feelings about the bills during a hearing?
Almost as soon as I walked into the room where the hearings were taking place, I saw Senator Altschiller and immediately knew that she was not on the side of common sense. Her demeanor towards those who were testifying in support of the bills was cold, unforgiving, and disrespectful. She even tried to interrupt and stop Rep. Katherine O’Brien’s (R) testimony before her ninety-second time slot was over. During my testimony, she barely LOOKED at me, let alone thanked me or asked any further questions, while she was attentive and even sympathetic towards the people speaking against the bills.
After one specific testimony from a person in opposition to the bills, Senator Altschiller asked the person a question that caused an uproar from those of us in support of the bill. She said, “Thank you for bringing up the mental health toll that drawing from this particular well takes on transgender people, on transgender people’s families and friends. “And would you say that, since we’re going to have 16 bills over the course of this session, and all of—like you said—the preparation and the rhetoric around it and the fear mongering that builds from it, that this is a form of stochastic terrorism?”
After multiple hours of keeping my composure while having to listen to people say my safety didn’t matter at all to them, myself, and other people who had come to the state house to testify in favor of the bills, could not hide our shock and anger. The person testifying couldn’t even answer the Senator’s question, and the chair of the committee had to intervene, saying the senator was way off-piste.
To be accused of fear-mongering and engaging in a form of terrorism for simply saying I did not want men in women’s bathrooms, by a FEMALE senator, no less, was appalling, frightening, and infuriating. These three bills are pro-truth, pro-reality, and pro-women’s rights, which is something that people on the political left CLAIM they strongly support. If Senator Altschiller is any indicator of how these people truly feel, she has helped make it abundantly clear that these people couldn’t care less about women’s rights, and actually care about pushing a dangerous agenda that has led to predatory males assaulting innocent girls in bathrooms.
Governor Ayotte has vetoed bills to protect girls’ spaces twice now, stating that this issue is ” a complicated one” as her reasoning not to pass any bill having to do with this. As a former athlete, former coach, and, like everyone else, a user of public bathrooms, it frustrates me that the governor has continued to allow men into our private spaces. It makes me feel as if the Governor, a female herself, would rather put other females at risk than acknowledge facts and reality. The bills will now, if passed by the Senate, go to Governor Ayotte’s desk for the third time. Can we count on her to protect girls in the Granite State? Only time will tell.
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