We recently stood outside the women’s restroom on the second floor of the State House alongside legislators, advocates, athletes, and everyday women who believe that preserving female-only spaces is both reasonable and necessary.
Whether you are an elected official or an everyday resident of our great state, citizenship carries both rights and responsibilities. One of those responsibilities is speaking up when you believe something important is at stake and ensuring that the voices of your community are heard.
For many of us, SB 552 is not a complicated bill. It does not require every school, business, or organization to designate spaces based on biological sex. It simply restores the ability to do so when appropriate.
Too often, women who express concerns about privacy, safety, or fairness are immediately labeled as hateful, intolerant, or fearful. Their arguments are dismissed before they are even heard. Yet women have fought for generations to secure opportunities, protections, and private spaces of their own. Asking that those spaces remain available is not discrimination. It is an acknowledgment that biological differences matter in certain contexts.
This conversation began with compassion for individuals experiencing gender dysphoria. Compassion remains important. Every person deserves dignity and respect. But compassion should never require women to surrender their own rights, boundaries, or concerns. In a free society, we should be able to recognize the humanity of one group without diminishing the rights of another.
As mothers, we think about the next generation of girls growing up in New Hampshire. We think about the lessons we teach them when they are told their discomfort must be ignored, their concerns dismissed, or their privacy treated as less important than someone else’s feelings. We should be teaching young women that their voices matter and that they have every right to advocate for themselves.
What many women are asking for is simple: the ability to maintain private spaces where biological sex matters, including bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing areas. They are asking for their voices to be heard rather than dismissed.
Governor Ayotte has an opportunity to demonstrate that protecting women’s spaces is more than a campaign slogan or talking point. She has an opportunity to affirm that the privacy, dignity, and concerns of women and girls matter.
That is why we gathered at the State House.
We are women who believe privacy matters. We are mothers, daughters, athletes, legislators, and citizens who believe fairness matters. We are advocates for the next generation of girls who deserve the same rights and protections generations of women fought to secure before them. And we are simply asking our elected leaders to recognize a truth that most Granite Staters already understand: women’s spaces deserve protection, and women’s voices deserve to be heard.