Transgender people in Ohio and their allies are outraged that the Ohio House of Representatives passed a last-minute bathroom ban bill ahead of a marathon Wednesday night ahead of summer vacation.
The bill will require Ohio elementary and secondary schools and universities will require students to only utilize the restroom or locker room that corresponds to their sex assigned at birth.
“Columbus hatemongers want Ohio’s transgender and gender nonconforming people to be stripped of their rights.” their right to exist in public space. They can make our lives hard, but they cannot prevent us from “part of this state,” TransOhio Executive Director Dara Adkison said in a statement.
Sam Shim, a parent of two transgender high school students, said his biggest concern with the restroom ban bill is that lawmakers are not focusing on the students.
“It seems like a political stunt to help them get their message out when they get back on the campaign trail,” Shim said. “My kids should be able to go to the bathroom without worrying about getting picked on.”
Honesty for Ohio Education said the bill would harm transgender students and families.
“We are deeply concerned that extremists in the state legislature would put the passage of this transphobic and hate-filled legislation ahead of anything that would help Ohioans,” Christina Collins, executive director of Honesty For Ohio Education, said in a statement.
Trans Allies of Ohio echoed comments House Minority Leader Allison Russo, a Democrat from Upper Arlington, said Wednesday evening on the House floor.
“We have school districts that cannot afford buses or find teachers, colleges that are losing students and closing their doors, and over 505,000 children in Ohio go hungry every day,” Trans Allies of Ohio said in a statement. “But attacking less than 1% of the population became a priority.”
“HB 183 is absurd and unnecessary, and the late-night passage of this bill by the Ohio House is simply targeting and intimidation. Our legislators are making it harder to be proud to be an Ohioan,” Jennifer Kuhn, a spokeswoman for the Kaleidoscope Youth Center, said in an email.
Equality Ohio said the law undermines the dignity and rights of transgender and gender nonconforming Ohioans.
“Regardless of race, origin or gender, we all deserve the dignity of safely existing in public life and enjoying the most basic public amenities,” Morgan Zickes, public policy manager at Equality Ohio, said in a statement. “We have seen extremists in the General Assembly resort to last-minute legislative action to ensure that transgender and gender nonconforming people in Ohio are deprived of this basic decency.”
According to the Williams Institute at the University of California, ten states have laws restricting access to gender-identity bathrooms in elementary and secondary schools Report for 2024 on the impact of anti-transgender legislation on youth. There are an estimated 34,800 transgender students between the ages of 13 and 17 living in these states.
However, these laws have been challenged in Florida, Oklahoma, Idaho and Tennessee.
How was the act adopted?
Law on the ban on using toilets (House Bill 183) was passed in April by the House Higher Education Committee, but was not on the agenda for Wednesday’s House session – the last before lawmakers leave for the summer break.
House Republicans took advantage Senate Bill 104, who revises The College Credit Plus program as a passing tool ban on using toilets for transgender people.
Rep. Adam Bird of New Richmond, one of the sponsors of HB 183, introduced an amendment that ultimately led to his bill being woven into SB 104. Due to the changes, the bill now returns to the Senate for approval.
TransOhio called the addition of HB 183 to SB 104 ““a dishonest move” that “undermines legislative processes.”
Because lawmakers are on summer vacation, the bill likely won’t advance to the Senate until the fall.
“When the Senate returns after the summer break, we urge everyone to keep the pressure on The Senate will not approve and the governor will veto,” Adkison said in a statement. “HB 183 is not law today and should not be ever this happens.”
Transgender bills in Ohio
Several draft laws regarding transsexual people are at various stages of work on the entry into force of the act.
Ohio’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth (House Bill 68) is the closest to becoming law, but is currently tied up in court. A Franklin County judge imposed a momentary restraining order that will remain in effect until the end of the hearing in July.
There has also been recent uproar in the General Assembly over House Bill 8, which would force teachers to disclose students’ sexuality to parents, require public schools to notify parents in advance of sexually explicit material and give them the opportunity to request alternative instruction.
HB 8 passed the House of Representatives last year and just had its fourth hearing in the Senate Education Committee.
Follow the OCJ reporter Megan Henry on X.
