Earlier in April, the New Hampshire State House passed a budget with major cuts to services like reproductive health centers, the university and community college systems, and increased costs for some, like the proposed premiums on Medicaid. At the same time, they added policy amendments, including:

• Eliminating the NH Commission on Human Rights - the agency that processes violations of nondiscrimination law

• Eliminating the Office of Child Advocate - a critical, independent agency designed to oversee all child-serving state agencies and organizations that contract with the state for children’s services. In this time of harmful policies against some of our most vulnerable children and potentially devastating cuts to social services, it is even more important to have the Office of the Child Advocate to identify gaps and to advocate for the needs of ALL New Hampshire children.

• Prohibiting state funding from being used for any Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion measures in schools, cities and towns

• And, the budget includes an amendment with the language of HB 148, the bill that would allow any public or private entity in New Hampshire to declare their restrooms are organized based on “biological sex,” opening the door to transgender and gender nonconforming people being told they don’t belong in public spaces.
  
  Most Granite Staters, no matter our gender, race, ability, or background, know that transgender people are valued members of our communities, and are no threat in public bathrooms. And most of us believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion simply mean increasing respect, belonging, and opening doors of opportunity and support, rather than quotas. Politicians are overreaching by using the government - and especially the state budget - to control localities and schools. We should be seeking to better understand each other across differences, not allowing politicians to further divide us.