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First 'Openly Trans' New Hampshire Lawmaker Pleads Guilty to Child Sex Charges

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  November 10, 2025 2:15 PM

Content Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of child sexual abuse. Reader discretion is advised.

Former New Hampshire State Rep. Barry ("Stacie-Marie") Laughton, whose election was lauded as history thanks to his trans identity, was arrested in 2023 on federal charges of sexual exploitation of children. As Townhall reported at the time:

The first openly transgender-identifying person to be elected to a state legislature, an LGBTQ darling of the Democrat Party, has shattered another glass ceiling as America's first trans lawmaker federally charged with sexually exploiting children, who were three-year-old toddlers. Of course, President Joe Biden's inclusive Justice Department found it imperative to not only respect—but affirm—the alleged pedophile's gender identity in the DOJ's announcement of the child pornography-related charges. 

39-year-old Barry a.k.a. "Stacie Marie" Laughton, previously a celebrated New Hampshire state representative, was charged on July 18 with one count of sexual exploitation of children—and aiding and abetting. In the official U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts press release, the Biden administration's woke Department of Justice calls the razor-burned biological male with a five o'clock shadow "a woman." And, throughout the criminal affidavit, the Homeland Security special agent uses Laughton's preferred "she/her" pronouns when detailing the defendant's disturbing sexual fantasies about preschool-aged children, which included the transsexual suspect's disgusting and depraved desire to "put my d*ck inside one of the little girls."

Now Laughton has pleaded guilty to those charges.

Here's more from The New York Post:

The first openly trans lawmaker in the US — who was hailed as a trail-blazer — has admitted to sickening child sex charges involving young kids in a daycare.

Former Democratic New Hampshire state Rep. Stacie-Marie Laughton, 41, a biological male who identifies as female, pleaded guilty to charges including sexual exploitation of children last week in a Boston federal court, WMUR reported.

Laughton faces up to 30 years in federal prison.

Four pictures of children believed to be 3 to 5 years old were sent to Laughton by former partner Lindsay Groves, who took the horrific images in the bathroom of the daycare where she worked in Tyngsborough, Mass., federal prosecutors said. 

Laughton — who was called a history-maker following their election to the New Hampshire House in 2012 — asked Groves to take the nauseating pictures and exchanged thousands of text messages about them, according to the feds.

In September, Groves pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of children and distribution of child pornography in federal court.

Charging documents said Laughton and Groves exchanged more than 10,000 texts and graphic images of children who were in Groves' care at the Massachusetts daycare. 

Back in 2012, Laughton was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, but he never took office. Laughton stepped down after it was revealed he'd been convicted of felony identity fraud in 2008. Laughton, who was born Barry Charles, Jr., legally changed his name in 2010, which likely helped fool voters for a short period of time. Laughton is also a self-proclaimed minister ordained by the non-denominational Universal Life Church Ministries, and would charge $50 to perform weddings, funerals, baptisms and other services.

The Biden DOJ went out of its way to protect Laughton and his trans identity following his arrest, with charging documents routinely referring to Laughton as a woman and using she/her pronouns. Democrat Eric Swalwell was once pictured with Laughton.

As was Beto O'Rourke.

Both Groves and Laughton will be sentenced in February. They both face up to 30 years behind bars.