As Rep. Jonah Wheeler gave a speech in the House of Representatives last week, half of his party members in the chamber walked out in protest.

Wheeler, who represents Peterborough and Sharon, had stood to voice his support for a bill that would allow government entities and businesses to separate bathrooms and locker rooms based on biological sex. That regulation, which passed the House 201-166, would roll back some anti-discrimination protections for transgender people. Wheeler and fellow Peterborough Rep. Peter Leishman were the only two Democrats to vote for House Bill 148. As Democrats left the chambers during Wheeler’s speech, people watching from the gallery cheered on their protest.

“The consent of one person cannot stand for the consent of another person, and if there are women who feel unsafe, if there are women who feel like their space has become not private, then we should listen to those women,” Wheeler said on the House floor ahead of the vote. “Just because a small segment of the population would like those policies to accommodate them over women doesn’t mean that we here today can do that.”

At the heart of the debate on HB 148 was a dispute over whose safety and privacy are on the line in these situations. During a public hearing, some people said they’re afraid that men might claim to be transgender just to gain access to a women’s bathroom, while trans people and LGBTQ advocates argued that they could be put in danger if they have to use a bathroom that doesn’t correspond with their gender expression.

Before Wheeler, Alice Wade, a transgender state representative from Dover, had pleaded with her colleagues to have more-open conversations around the topic instead of treating trans people like “political weapons.”

“I think we need more of that willingness as a country to speak honestly and seek to understand one another, to stop the vilification of our fellow citizens and to find common ground,” Wade said. “This bill does the exact opposite, labeling all trans people as a threat to public safety and privacy while somehow claiming to oppose discrimination.”

In an interview, Wheeler said he’s in “absolutely no way” targeting trans people but that he had to weigh the rights, safety and privacy of one group against another.

“The rights of the minority and the rights of the majority need to be balanced,” Wheeler said.

In the days since his speech, Wheeler said, his phone notifications have gone “quite insane” with a flood of calls and emails. Most people are thanking him, he said, but he has received feedback from people on all sides of the issue.

Leishman also said in an interview that he doesn’t view his vote as being against trans people. When asked how he’d respond to those who do view it that way, Leishman said he has supported social issues, like legalizing gay marriage, which the Legislature did in 2010. He said it comes down to the specific topic.

“It’s more than just a trans issue,” Leishman said. “You’ve got to look at the big picture and what we’re doing moving forward and make sure we don’t create problems for the other side of the issue as well.”

The Peterborough Democrats agreed with Wade that the issue needs more open, respectful discussion, but took a different angle. Leishman said that moderate members of his party are feeling alienated by the focus on social issues rather than what he called the “bread-and-butter” economic issues like lowering property taxes and funding public education.

“I think the far left of our party is not paying attention to what is really important to not only Democrats but people in New Hampshire,” Leishman said.

Wheeler argued that the Democratic Party’s “orthodoxy” on transgender issues has made it so people can’t have nuanced conversations about them. He said on the House floor that someone called him a Nazi at the prospect of his giving the speech on Thursday, and that someone shouldn’t be labeled as a bigot or a transphobe “just because we certainly have questions” about protecting women and women’s spaces.

“These issues do not have to cause violence,” Wheeler told the chamber. “These conversations can be nuanced, and we can have conversations about treating each other with respect and humanity, and putting in place policies that say that women who were born women deserve a space to themselves, whether that be the bathroom or sports or the locker room or prisons, is not transphobic.”

Leishman and Wheeler were also two of just five Democrats who voted to establish a “parental bill of rights” last week. House Bill 10 would require schools to answer parents’ questions and give them access to their children’s records and information, something advocates warn could put LGBTQ students in danger by compelling schools to disclose their gender identity to their parents before they’re ready.

This coming week, the House is set to vote on more transgender-related bills, including a pair that could ban puberty blockers, hormone treatments and breast surgery for transgender minors.

Wheeler and Leishman, alongside Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill, are holding a listening session with constituents at the Peterborough Town Library on Tuesday evening, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript and Concord Monitor in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter or send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.