Seacoast State Senator Accuses Bathroom Bill Backers Of 'Stochastic Terrorism'

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

Sen. Debra Altschiller (D-Stratham), an outspoken advocate for allowing biological males into women’s sports and private spaces, accused those who disagree with her of “stochastic terrorism.”

Altschiller made her comments during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday regarding legislation on so-called “trans” issues.

Three bills were before the committee: HB 1217, HB 1299 and HB 1447, all related to making it legal in some circumstances to keep biological males—including those who claim to be female—out of single-sex spaces and activities for women.

These “bathroom bills,” as they’re known, have come before the legislature repeatedly because Republican Governors Chris Sununu and Kelly Ayotte have vetoed previous legislation passed by GOP majorities.

Democrats helped sustain these vetoes, with the unintended consequence of keeping the issue alive year after year. With polls showing voters siding with the GOP by 40 percent or more on keeping men out of women’s bathrooms, Republicans aren’t about to drop it.

A clearly frustrated Altschiller has had enough, and she showed it during testimony from Sam Hawkins with NAMI NH.

“Thank you for bringing up the mental health toll that drawing from this particular well takes on transgender people, on transgender people’s families and friends,” Altschiller said. “And would you say that, since we’re going to have 16 bills over the course of this session, and all of—like you said—the preparation and the rhetoric around it and the fearmongering that builds from it, that this is a form of stochastic terrorism?”

Stochastic terrorism is, according to Harvard’s Juliette Kayyem, “the demonization of groups through mass media and other propaganda that can result in a violent act because listeners interpret it as promoting targeted violence — terrorism.”

Hawkins wasn’t familiar with the phrase.

“I don’t know that I have a full definition to necessarily agree with that statement,” Hawkins answered. But he confirmed that his organization “hears from community members that people don’t feel comfortable coming to the State House, participating in these discussions, defending their rights.”

Altschiller argued that the “amplified rhetoric” from the other side of the issue is harmful. This is the argument behind the phrase “stochastic terrorism,” connecting speech from the political right to acts of violence, even when there is no direct connection. (“Stochastic” means “things that are randomly determined but have a predictable overall distribution.”)

Conservatives respond by noting the term is rarely used to describe acts of violence targeting President Trump, Republicans, health industry professionals or Jewish college students — all subjects of heated rhetoric from the left.

Whatever the merits of the argument, Senate Judiciary chair Sen. Bill Gannon (R-Sandown) found it was far afield from the topic before his committee.

“I think you’re way off subject matter,” Gannon said when Altschiller began complaining about hateful rhetoric “from the White House in the form of executive orders.”

“Thank you, Sam,” he told the witness. “Have a good day.”

Interestingly, as Granite State Democrats double down on an unpopular political stance, they’re also losing the battle over science.

Denying that an individual’s sex is determined by their biology has always been questionable at best. But now more data is coming out showing the sex-change procedures defended by Democrats are in doubt.

Earlier this month, Finnish researchers published an analysis showing the demand for “specialty psychiatric care” drastically increased among young people who underwent gender transition.

In February, in the first of what legal experts believe will be many lawsuits against doctors who performed sex change surgery on minors, the patient was awarded $2 million in damages.

In previous court actions, discovery revealed that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and its American chapter, USPATH “had suppressed evidence reviews by researchers who found that the supposed benefits of hormones and surgeries for minors were not based on credible evidence,” the Free Press reported.

And it didn’t help Altschiller’s cause when one of the most aggressive opponents of legislation protecting minors from sex change procedures—the Southern Poverty Law Center—was indicted by the Department of Justice on Tuesday.

The charge? An 11-count federal fraud indictment alleges the organization secretly funneled more than $3 million in donor funds to people in white supremacist groups, including the KKK and Aryan Nations.

“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.