Wednesday was the fourth hearing on HB 183, a bill passed in the Statehouse that would prohibit transgender people from using shared restrooms and locker rooms in Ohio schools – from kindergarten through college – that match their gender identity.
Members of the state Higher Education Committee heard testimony from Reps. Beth Lear (R-Galena) and Adam Bird (R-New Richmond), the bill’s authors. The hearing took place just hours before the House was in full session and aimed to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of HB 68, a bill banning gender-affirming care.
Representatives Lear and Bird made key changes and additions to HB 183, including:
- Renaming the bill the “Protection of All Students Act.” It’s still all about bathrooms.
- Changing the definition of “biological sex” to exactly the same as in HB 68.
- Prohibiting all universities from building, establishing or maintaining multi-occupancy facilities defined as “non-sex, multi-sex or open to all genders.” Many colleges in Ohio currently maintain these spaces, and HB 183 will force their repurposing.
During the 40-minute hearing, we heard dueling Bible verses, rampant transphobia and some bizarre anecdotes.
Here are 20 of the most memorable audition quotes.
1. “The title of the bill is now ‘The Protection of All Students Act'”
-Representative. Lear. Correct. The law, called the “Protecting All Students Act,” does not apply to guns. Or mental health. Or food insecurity. The Protecting All Students Act applies to bathrooms.
2. “This redefines the definition of biological sex to the definition used in House Bill 68.”
-Representative. Bird, openly acknowledging a coordinated effort to unify all of Ohio’s anti-transgender laws
3. “Why are you doing this?”
-Representative. Casey Weinstein (D-Hudson), asking as clearly as he could.
4. “I’m telling the truth, I hear this from superintendents and voters all over Ohio.”
-Representative. Bird, without providing any data on why this bill was proposed.
5. “The vast majority of courts have held that excluding transgender students from using facilities consistent with their gender identity is in fact unlawful discrimination.”
-Rep. Richard Brown (D-Canal Winchester), an attorney who has been practicing law for 35 years.
6. “I believe this is an issue that is important to a growing number of Americans and a growing number of Ohioans because of the growing momentum in our country and state of such bill language.”
-Representative. Bird, expressing his sense of Republican priorities in response to Rep. Brown’s legal concerns.
7. “There is a song based on Matthew:25 that basically says, ‘Whatever you do to the least of my people, you do it to me.’ How do you reconcile this law with the teachings you preach?”
-Rep. Joe Miller (D-Lorain) is trying a different approach
8. “Thank you for touching on the Christmas season and what the Bible has to say. In the Gospel of Luke: 1 Jesus says that if you offend one of these least of mine, it would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the deepest sea. There are also concerns that Jesus has about children, and in the book of Genesis he said that he created them male and female.”
-Rep Lear with Biblical quotes regarding dueling, albeit misleading since Jesus did not appear in Genesis. I’m a gay Jew from New Jersey and even AND know this.
9. “Can you see that in this General Assembly we do not separate church and state? What do you think about the religious endorsement included in this bill and the imposition of religious endorsement on those members of our society who may not subscribe to the Old and New Testaments?”
-Representative. Miller.
10. “I don’t think we talked about what the Bible says during our testimony.”
-Representative. Bird, responding to Representative Miller, stating that he is completely wrong. During the October introduction of this bill, Rep. Lear quoted the Bible at length as a motivation for this bill.
11. “This act does not specify the institution what the punishment will be. It’s their business.
-Representative. Bird, responding to the question of what universities should do with those who use the bathroom that matches their gender identity rather than the birth certificate issued to them at or near the time of birth.
12. “We have a situation involving one voter who wished to remain anonymous, so I’m not going to name this person who has a mixed-race child. Her son is very talented in sports. At his rural school, there was an explosion in the number of girls identifying as men and using male facilities. Coaches and teachers warned him that he should no longer use the all-male facility because one of the women who identified as male might accuse him of something. So he is one of those who is forced to go to the teacher and nurse bathrooms.”
-Representative. Lear, telling a strange story in response to the question of what data influenced this law.
13. “The young men at one of my high schools who had two girls in the cabins at band camp didn’t feel safe. They felt helpless and vulnerable.”
-Representative. Lear, turning to another anecdote as a source of data.
14. “We are erasing women.”
-Representative. Lear, repeatedly and without provocation.
15. “This is eerily reminiscent of 1950s discussions about how white women were afraid of black men.”
-Representative. Miller
16. “I don’t think this bill is racist.”
-Representative. Bird, perhaps not seeing what Rep. Miller was trying to convey.
17. “People who are not confused about their gender.”
-Representative. Lear how he repeatedly refers to transgender people. At no point during the hearing did Mr Lear use the word “transgender”, even when asked directly whether he believed transgender people existed.
18. “My mutual sponsor and I believe this is so important that all schools should be included.”
-Representative. Bird, acknowledging that private universities opposed the bill but included it anyway. Representatives of Bird and Lear repeatedly assured that they had consulted these changes with universities, but did not indicate which ones, apart from Ohio State University, admitting only that they were all public institutions.
19. “If I had a child who thought he was a bird, would I take him to a doctor who would let him discover being a bird, and by the way, there’s a 5-story building next door, so why don’t you see if you think he can fly .
-Representative. Lear in response to the question whether transgender people exist.
20. “That’s offensive.”
-Representative. Weinstein, summarizing the meeting. 🔥
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