Ohio Republicans Continue Quest To End Transition "For Everyone" With Bathroom Ban
Earlier this year, Rep. Gary Click of Ohio was caught in a recorded meeting detailing a strategy to end transition "for everyone." Ohio's bathroom ban appears to be the latest step in doing do that.
Earlier this year, representatives from Ohio and Michigan were caught in a recorded conversation detailing their plan to end transition "for everyone" by curtailing transgender rights "one bite at a time… incrementally." On Wednesday evening, Ohio Republicans appeared to take the next step in that plan by passing a bathroom ban for transgender youth and adults in schools and colleges, sneaking it into a bill that had already passed the Senate on dual enrollment for students who wish to earn college credits while in high school. If the Senate concurs and the governor signs the bill into law, Ohio will become only the seventh state with restrictions targeted at transgender adults in bathrooms in the United States.
The bill, originally penned as House Bill 183, covers K-12 schools and colleges. It would bar all such institutions from allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their gender identity. Additionally, it prohibits these institutions from maintaining multi-occupancy all-gender restrooms. The provisions could have a huge impact on transgender students in the state, as many schools do not have widely available gender-neutral restrooms.
“Please, don’t support a world where I have to use the restroom in a parking garage instead of the one that I sit right next to while studying, where my girlfriend’s trans coworkers have to leave the building they work in at night just to relieve themselves, or where students at my old high school have to go across a busy intersection just to pee,” said Cam Ogden in a testimony on the bill earlier this year, highlighting that separate gender-neutral restrooms are rarely equal in availability or circumstance.
The bill appears laser-targeted at making life more difficult for transgender people in the state, which may align with Republican plans to end transition "for everyone" in Ohio. Earlier this year, Representative Gary Click, who was responsible for the state’s gender-affirming care ban which was blocked in court, was caught in an audio segment with other Republican legislators explaining plans to ban transition "for everyone.” In that meeting, he stated that any such plan needs to be done "one bite at a time… incrementally." While legislators in that meeting were discussing gender-affirming care specifically, Click connected the bathroom ban with his belief that simply being transgender is "a lie” during last night’s hearing. He also inaccurately claimed that transitioning increases depression and anxiety. In reality, studies show that transitioning alleviates depression and anxiety for transgender people.
Democratic Representative Beth Liston spoke against the bill, “We should not be marginalizing children or adults who are different, relegating them to separate places in society… imagine being the kid who already feels different and being told they must use a special bathroom in a different part of the school because the Ohio general assembly views them as a threat.”
Bathroom bans targeting transgender adults are very uncommon in the United States—only six other states have passed such legislation. Florida and Utah have some of the harshest bathroom bans, targeting transgender people in parks, government buildings, rest stops, and more. Other states with similar laws, such as Mississippi and Louisiana, allow people to sue if they encounter transgender individuals in bathrooms.
It is uncertain what the ultimate fate of this bill will be. Republicans passed the bathroom ban in a bill that had already been passed by the Senate. That bill, Senate Bill 104, is a bill dealing with dual enrollment in college classes while in high school. The Senate could concur or side against the changes; if they concur, the bill will go to the Governor for a final signature.
While we follow the legislative and legal battles here, I think it's wise if we keep in mind that our opponents are not necessarily following a legislative or political strategy. They really don't care if these bills pass or not, or whether or not they are struck down on constitutional grounds after they have been passed. A big part of this is psychological, it is innuring the public to gender prejudice. That is precisely why it ties us to the women's movement. And that word prejudice is why it ties us to other obvious minorities. Right now they're just ringing the bell. The legislative and political game board is going to change after the Supremes weigh in. But for right now it's largely tub thumping, extreme right tubthumping.
Unrelated news, MI has passed the ban on the panic defense goes to Whitmer for signing.