The N.H. House passed a $16 billion biennial state spending plan on April 10. Our Republican-led legislature focused on cutting spending by eliminating jobs in government agencies such as the N.H. Department of Education, as well as cutting the budget of the University System of New Hampshire. Hidden in this budget bill is also the move to dissolve the Office of the Child Advocate and the New Hampshire Human Rights Commission, as well as a move that would allow transgender individuals to be barred from using the restrooms that align with their gender identities.
I’ve already gotten on my soapbox for trans issues, and as such I won’t spend my time reiterating the position that I have already made clear. Hearing news of attacks on my personal rights as a transgender woman are just another part of my morning routine. I will instead zoom out and ask, why is this even included in the budget in the first place? This is a tool many politicians have utilized to sneak policies into getting passed. The state cannot function without some sort of budget being approved, so tacking on bills like this gives them more of a chance of going through. But trans people aren’t the only ones affected by these tacked-on policies: There are proposals for vaccine requirements for children to be limited, as well as a lift on the ban on brass knuckles and other such weapons.
This latest N.H. budget news simply highlights a wider issue across the U.S. The powers that be are becoming more interested in maintaining control than allowing individual freedoms and state services to persist. I am not an especially patriotic person. From what I’ve read of history, it seems that blind adoration for and faith in one’s nation is the mold spore that spreads and blossoms into fascism. This is not a word that I throw around lightly. If our country isn’t already there, we are certainly headed in that direction. It seems that our representative democracy is not wholly representing the people it serves.
I understand that our House politicians need to contend with a dizzying array of executive orders and fallout from tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. These are, as they seem to have been for over a decade, uncertain times. That does not, however, excuse lumping attacks on transgender people and other nonsense into the state budget. With each move like this, our state motto loses its meaning, withering into nothing more than just a nice-sounding string of words we slap on license plates and t-shirts.
It has often been said that history repeats itself. Some amend this to say that history does not repeat itself, but it instead rhymes. I often imagine time as a pendulum swing—movements will naturally come and go, a time that is more progressive will be followed by a time that is more conservative. But that is not to say that we should sit by and wait out the storm. This swinging pendulum moves only when we want it to do so, and for now we still have the power to elect officials that truly represent the will of the people and do not act in the interest of business or themselves.
May Cassidy can be contacted at
mcassidy@kscequinox.com
