Lawmakers are about to make it easier to harm the most vulnerable children in the state.
This week, the New Hampshire Senate Children and Family Law Committee will be holding a hearing on HB 1376. This incredibly dangerous bill would explicitly exempt conversion therapy from the state’s child abuse and neglect statutes and allow foster care and adoption agencies to discriminate against potential families based on their religious beliefs. If this bill passes, adults in positions of authority could legally subject LGBTQ+ children to a discredited practice rejected by every major medical association, placing young people at a higher risk of depression, substance abuse, homelessness, and suicidal behavior under the guise of religious liberty.
Proponents of HB 1376 claim that this bill is simply meant to ensure parents can raise their children according to their own religious beliefs. This is simply not the case. Conversion therapy is child abuse and no child should be subjected to this devastating practice in order to accommodate the beliefs of the adults in power over them. While there is no credible evidence that conversion therapy can change a child’s sexual orientation and gender identity, there is extensive evidence that it destroys lives. This is a well-documented and preventable harm that New Hampshire lawmakers are about to make easier to inflict on young people throughout the state.
This bill is just one step away from becoming law. Tell lawmakers TODAY that religious freedom does not include a license to abuse children!
In addition to allowing child abuse, HB 1376 would also allow adoption and foster care agencies receiving state funding to turn away qualified families based solely on their religious beliefs. Unmarried individuals, LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities, nonreligious families, and anyone else who falls outside an agency’s definition of “proper families” would be prevented from providing safe and affirming homes to young people in need regardless of their fitness as parents. In every state that has passed this kind of discriminatory legislation, the number of potential foster and adoptive families has dropped. If HB 1376 passes, it will shrink the pool of families available to provide much-needed homes to the hundreds of children currently in New Hampshire’s foster care system.
Lawmakers should not put the religious preferences of a few above the well-being of New Hampshire children. Urge the Committee to reject HB 1376!