How New Hampshire Politics Turned Transgender Teens Into Advocates

She gave her testimony in a direct, calm and eloquent manner. At this point, she has years of practice to defend her interests and those of teenagers like her. It’s a role she never asked for but one she feels she must fulfill.

Iris became a lawyer When she was just 10, her mother, Amy Manzelli, told the Globe she had a written statement that didn't identify her by name. Her parents eventually allowed Iris to identify herself publicly.

“I was just ready to do something,” Iris said from a perch on the couch during an interview at the family home.

Iris came out to her family at age 7, though her mother said she had already shown she was a girl from the moment she could speak a sentence. As a little girl, Manzelli said, Iris would ask Santa to turn her into a girl for Christmas.

After Iris was released, she was finally able to live day to day like a girl. She wears She wears girls' clothes, uses the girls' restroom at school, and joined the girls' tennis team at school, although she did not make the softball team.

During this legislative session, Iris has traveled to the state House of Representatives to testify against several bills, including one that would ban transgender girls like her from playing on girls' sports teams in grades 5-12 (House Bill 1205), potentially bar her from locker rooms or restrooms (House Bill 396), and require parental notification so that she and her classmates are informed gender or gender expression (House Bill 1312). Another bill, House Bill 619, would bar minors from having genital sex reassignment surgery and prevent doctors from providing referrals for the procedure, which they say is extremely rare.

Proponents of banning transgender girls from sports argue that it is unfair for them to play on the same team because they have a biological advantage. They point out that men have increased strength after male puberty, which they say will allow people assigned male at birth to overtake women in sports.

All four bills are headed to Gov. Chris Sununu's desk. Sununu has indicated he supports banning transgender girls from attending high schools. He has not yet said whether he will sign the bill. If he does, Manzelli said, his family will take legal action.

“I’m petrified,” Manzelli said. “I’ve heard rumors that some of them are going to be rejected, but unless they’re all rejected, it doesn’t really matter. … None of them are acceptable.” Waiting to find out what's going to happen, Iris says, is like “just suffering.”

In March, Sununu said it was dangerous for transgender girls to play with girls. “I fundamentally do not believe that biological boys should compete in women's sports,” he said.

He has maintained this position firmly in recent interviews, even after hearing stories of transgender athletes in New Hampshire.

“This bill is not about the individual,” Sununu said at a June 27 news conference. interview with WMUR.

“It’s a system-wide issue. It’s a fairness issue, it’s a safety issue,” he said. “You’ve seen other stories all over the country of state champions, biological boys becoming state champions. It impacts scholarships and it impacts the fairness of competition.”

In April, New Hampshire children's advocate Cassandra Sanchez spoke out against dozens of bills that she said would harm LGBTQ+ youth, including the effort to ban transgender girls from schools. sports teams.

“We’re all about fairness and justice, and every kid should have a chance,” she said. She doesn’t see transgender athletes “trying to get ahead or hurt others by playing sports. They’re trying to have a normalized childhood.”

She said many children find a sense of belonging through playing team sports. Sara Tirrell, whose daughter Parker is transgender and play soccer, okay.

“The goal is to be part of the team,” Tirrell said.

“Parker's team in particular didn't win a game last year. They weren't the type to knock anybody off their feet, because that's not their style,” she said.

Parker stood in the crowd at the Legislative Office Building during the late April news conference, alongside her father, Zach. Tears streamed down her face as she listened to her mother publicly explain how she tried to comfort her daughter after a classmate insulted and called her names and told her she should kill herself.

“As a mother, I remain committed to fostering an environment in which she can live authentically and unapologetically,” Tirrell said. That meant she spent two years making an hour-long drive from her home in Plymouth to Concord to testify against bills that would impact her family.

In an interview, Tirrell said she first came to the State House in 2023 to testify against a bill that would have added gender-affirming health care to the definition of child abuse.

This year, with the support of her family, Parker decided to testify for the first time, speaking out against the attempt to exclude transgender girls from women's sports teams.

Parker has been playing soccer since she was 4 years old and says it has become a big part of her identity. played in all positions: defense, midfield and striker. Football is the way She met with many of her friends. She said it would be “devastating” if the bill became law. The football team, she said, is not an option, and the use of men's toilets or changing rooms.

Defending her interests and those of others has been difficult for this 15-year-old girl.

“I feel like I shouldn’t have to do it because it seems like a lot to do as a freshman in high school who’s still trying to figure things out academically,” she said. “I don’t want to do it, but it’s something important that I have to do.”

“It was really hard for me,” Parker said, “having to deal with all these people trying to dictate how my life was supposed to go.”

Parker hopes to be able to play football with her team again in the fall. But for now, her future remains an open question, one she and Iris are waiting for the governor to resolve.

You can contact Amanda Gokee at [email protected]. Follow her @amanda_gokee.