Lacey Fehrenbach

I am a cisgender woman, born and raised in southern NH all my life. I am sitting here listening in on the testimony of Senator Avard as he claims that as a woman, I am weak and need to be protected. There is a man sitting here before my representatives, trying to claim he knows what I secretly think, feel, and need. And then when asked if this is his general stance on girls and women -- that we must be discriminated against in order to 'protect' us from a world full of strong, scary men -- he claimed to be 'offended' by the thought. I am offended. I am offended that this person has decided that his biased, intrinsic beliefs outweigh the testimony the women of New Hampshire have provided to this committee. We do not need to be discriminated against in order to keep us safe. If anything, why not introduce bills to actually protect women? Why not make it easier for victims to get justice in cases of sexual assault or domestic abuse? If you care so much about women, you would make a safer space for us to exist in instead of trying to cage and shackle us. Also, it's embarrassing to hear him speak on this subject when he doesn't understand what an intersex person is. He should be ashamed and apologizing to every single intersex and LGBTQ+ citizen of this state. I'm not going to bother diving into the rabbit hole of how messed up it is that the original point of this bill is to actually discriminate against transgender people because it's beyond obvious. Discriminating against transgender people and women in one swing is beyond disgraceful. Do better.