New Hampshire Governor Vetoes “Bathroom Bill” for Third Time
Gov. Kelly Ayotte says she agrees with the concerns behind the bill but believes it is overly broad and difficult to enforce.
New Hampshire Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte has vetoed, for the third time since taking office last year, a bill seeking to bar transgender people from bathrooms and other spaces that align with their gender identity.
The “bathroom bill” seeks to carve out exceptions to New Hampshire’s 2018 Law Against Discrimination, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The measure was signed into law by former Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.
As reported by the New Hampshire Bulletin, the bill would allow business owners to bar transgender people from restrooms or locker rooms that align with their gender identity, permit female-designated sports teams to exclude transgender women from competition, and allow jails and prisons to assign housing based on a person’s sex assigned at birth.
It does not require businesses, sports teams, or prisons to restrict access based on assigned sex at birth, but merely permits them to do so.
Supporters of the bill argue that transgender athletes, particularly those who experienced male puberty without taking puberty blockers, have unfair physical advantages over cisgender female athletes. They also contend that men could falsely claim to be transgender in order to access women’s locker rooms.
Opponents argue that the legislation is a solution in search of a problem, unfairly singles out transgender people, and could create additional issues. They point to several high-profile incidents in which masculine-presenting cisgender women were mistaken for men and harassed in bathrooms, including one case in which a lesbian was ejected from a hotel because of confusion over her gender identity.
In her veto message, Ayotte noted that it was the fourth time the Republican-led legislature had sent a nearly identical measure to the governor’s desk. The first veto came when Sununu was still in office. At the time, he refused to carve out exemptions from state civil rights law, calling the bill “contrary to New Hampshire’s ‘Live Free or Die’ spirit,” a reference to the state motto.
Ayotte issued two previous vetoes of similar legislation in 2025 and 2026, saying she agreed that proponents had raised “legitimate privacy and safety concerns” about biological females sharing spaces with people assigned male at birth. However, she rejected the measures as “overly broad and impractical to enforce.”
“I have continued to ask the Legislature to address this issue in a thoughtful, narrow way while protecting the privacy, safety, and rights of all Granite Staters,” Ayotte said. “Unfortunately, there is minimal difference between this bill, the bill I vetoed earlier this year, the one I vetoed last year, and the one vetoed in 2024 by Governor Sununu. Trying the same thing again isn’t going to get a different result.”
Ayotte may yet issue another veto in the coming weeks. Republican lawmakers have already passed a separate bill containing language identical to the measure she just rejected.
Republicans could attempt to override Ayotte’s veto with a two-thirds majority vote, but are unlikely to sway enough Democrats — who make up roughly 45% of the legislature — to help them do so. As reported by New Hampshire Public Radio, the bathroom bill passed by a margin of just 20 votes, 179-159, well short of a two-thirds majority.
Still, as the Bulletin notes, Republicans appear intent on sending the bill back to Ayotte until she signs it.
“If these bills don’t pass, we’re going to bring them back next year,” State Rep. Lisa Mazur (R-Goffstown), the bill’s House sponsor, told reporters at a rally urging Ayotte to sign the measure into law. “We’re going to keep going with this until something changes. We have to do this for our girls and our women.”
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