New Hampshire Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte vetoed a GOP-led bill on Friday that would have barred males from female spaces and sports teams.
The veto marks the third time a Republican-backed “bathroom bill” has been rejected by the state’s governor. Ayotte vetoed a similar bill last year, and former Republican Gov. Chris Sununu blocked a similar measure in 2024, NHPR reported.
The bill would have let schools, prisons, and businesses bar transgender-identifying people from using restrooms, locker rooms, and other sex-specific spaces that are different from their biological sex. The bill would have applied to sports teams as well and would have specifically created exceptions to the state’s anti-discrimination law, per the report.
Ayotte said in a statement that she vetoed the legislation, called Senate Bill 268, because it is “nearly identical” to the one she rejected last year.
“I made it clear this issue needed to be addressed in a thoughtful, narrow way that protects the privacy, safety, and rights of all Granite Staters,” Ayotte said.
Ayotte previously agreed there are “privacy and safety concerns” to allowing males into spaces designated for females, although she said the 2025 version was “overly broad and impractical to enforce.” She also claimed the bill would create an “exclusionary environment.”
Sununu similarly vetoed a “bathroom bill” in 2024, claiming it “runs contrary to New Hampshire’s Live Free or Die Spirit” and “seeks to solve problems that have not presented themselves.
State Republican lawmakers have previously failed to override the governor’s veto.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton
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