A wave of public protests persuaded New Hampshire state legislators to reject a pro-transgender bill that would have allowed men to walk into girls’ and women’s restrooms, showers, and other public facilities.

“The number of people who have written stating that this bill essentially offers their children up to sexual predators is out running by five to one the number of emails” supporting the bill, said Rep. Jess Edwards (R).

“State representatives were under intense pressure [from transgender activists and progressives] to ignore the effect the legislation could have on the safety, privacy and religious liberty rights of New Hampshire residents,” said Cornerstone, a New Hampshire-based pro-family advocacy group. “Unquestionably, Speaker of the House Shawn [Shawn] Jasper and the House leadership team played a role in preventing the Bathroom Bill from going forward,” the conservative group said.

“I have been more vocal in this case,” Jasper said before the vote. “I do feel very strongly about this, as does the majority of the Republican caucus and it will take an almost unanimous Republican caucus to table it, but I do believe a majority of Republicans will vote to table this bill.”

H.B. 478, which was intended to prohibit “discrimination based on gender identity,” was tabled by a vote of 187-179 amid intense controversy within the state.

The New Hampshire House of Reps just tabled a transgender-rights bill with a 187 to 179 vote. @freedom4allusa reports: pic.twitter.com/LIBCEuUWse — Dominic Holden (@dominicholden) March 9, 2017

Democrats pushed the bill in cooperation with progressives and transgender advocates.

“The committee heard strong testimony from the transgender community and the business, legal and law enforcement communities and faith leaders that this bill will provide needed strong protections,” Rep. Jerry Knirk (D) said, reports the Union Leader. Knirk said he received more than 500 emails in the last few days before the vote, with about an equal number on each side of the debate.

Gov. Chris Sununu (R) took no public position on the measure, which is now effectively dead for this legislative session.

State Rep. Victoria Sullivan (R) tells Breitbart News that “federal and state law currently protect against discrimination.”

“Between 2010 and 2106 three cases of [transgender] discrimination based on gender identity were filed in the state of New Hampshire,” she explains. “These cases were able to be pursued under current protections.”

“In the live free or die state, we should not be creating categories and subcategories of protected classes,” she said. “Each time that we do we inevitably leave someone out. Every individual should be treated with respect and without discrimination.”

“The emails and correspondence that I received from constituents favored killing the bill at a rate of approximately eight to one,” Sullivan adds. “Many residents were concerned with the fact that a policy similar to this was used by a predator in a local Target store to take pictures of girls over the course of a few days. It is the predators in wait that concern most of our constituents, not the transgender population.”

The issue is much bigger than bathrooms because transgender advocates are demanding that men and women be freely allowed to change their legal sex to match their self-selected “gender identity,” regardless of biology. If made law, the “gender identity” definition of sex would blur the civic distinctions between male and female, and allow transgender people to sue for entry into single-sex facilities and institutions — such as bathrooms and showers, sports leagues and women’s shelters — because a man could simply say he has a female “gender identity” and the legal right to enter women’s’ facilities.

Less than one-quarter of Americans support the flexible “gender-identity” ideology pushed by gay activists and by former President Barack Obama.

A recent poll from Crux/Marist finds that majorities of Americans support the traditional concept of biological men using men’s restrooms and biological women using women’s restrooms. Results of the poll show 66 percent do not think “someone who is transitioning to become the opposite sex” should be permitted to use the restroom or locker room of whichever sex they choose. A recent Rasmussen survey also found only 38 percent of Americans favor “allowing transgender students to use the bathrooms of the opposite biological sex.”

Another recent poll by a pro-transgender group at UCLA showed that only 23 percent of Americans think people should be allowed to switch their legal sex without any tests or approval by government agencies. A Civitas poll conducted last April focused on younger children. Its results showed that only seven percent of 600 North Carolinians strongly supported a federal judge’s demand “ordering girls and boys in public middle schools to share locker rooms, bathroom, and shower facilities.” Of those surveyed, 72 percent strongly opposed the demand.

Since the presidential election last year, Obama has twice admitted that his unpopular transgender policy helped to defeat Hillary Clinton.

In the marketplace, the Target retail chain has lost $15 billion in investor value since it triggered a consumer boycott by supporting the pro-transgender campaign in April 2016.