Members of the Ohio House voted Wednesday to advance the state’s ban on public cross-dressing and gender-specific performances.
Ohio House Bill (HB) 249 – which has passed three committee hearings and is full of anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-transgender disinformation – will now go to the Senate. The bill passed the House on a 63-30 vote, largely along party lines: Rep. Jamie Callender (R-Concord) broke ranks to vote against the bill.
If it passed, “Passing the Indecent Exposure Modernization Act” would ban drag queen and gender-specific performances outside “adult cabarets” or other public places where a minor may be present.
Public performances that meet the definition of obscenity are already prohibited under Ohio law.
The bill’s anti-LGBTQ+ language would disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ performers by severely restricting “performers or entertainers who demonstrate a gender identity other than the performer’s or entertainer’s biological sex through the use of clothing, makeup, prosthetics or imitations of genitalia or breasts or other physical characteristics…”
Additionally, a separate part of the bill that replaces the phrase “private area” with “private area” would also aid criminalize transgender and gender non-conforming people who apply gender-specific public facilities on a daily basis.
Targeting transgender Ohioans
HB 249’s lead sponsor – conservative Christian Rep. Josh Williams (Oregon) – said the bill would prevent transgender Ohioans from using gender-specific public facilities, such as locker rooms, to change clothing during the day.
During her public testimony, Williams referenced at length an anti-transgender incident that occurred at a YMCA in Xenia, Ohio, in which a transgender person was sued after she tried to change her clothes in a shared gender-conforming locker room.
The incident was not part of a drag queen or gender performance.
Ultimately, the judge found that the transgender person was not guilty of public indecency.
But both Williams and David Mahan — executive policy director of the Columbus-based anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Center for Christian Virtue (CCV) — said the bill would prevent judges from ruling in this way in future cases.
The bill’s co-author, Rep. Angie King (R-Celina), discussed the lawsuit in detail before the House vote.
Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee rejected an amendment from Rep. Beryl Brown Piccolantonio (D-Columbus) that would have removed this language.
Brown Piccolantonio told lawmakers that removing this language “[clarify] that the bill is not intended to target anyone whose appearance differs from their sex assigned at birth by simply removing language regarding dressing in a manner inconsistent with one’s “biological sex.”
In 2023, Arkansas lawmakers gutted a similar anti-drag billradically amending it to exclude linguistic performers who demonstrate a gender identity different from their assigned sex at birth by “using clothing, makeup, or other accessories that are traditionally worn by band members and that are intended to exaggerate the gender identity of the performer’s opposite sex.”
Williams told fellow lawmakers that the portion of the legislation targeting LGBTQ+ Ohioans is an vital part of the bill’s goal.
“I oppose this amendment,” Williams said. “This amendment undermines the intentions of the bill’s authors. It undermines the specific indecent and child-endangering acts that we are trying to implement.”
The House Judiciary Committee passed the bill and forwarded it to the Ohio House for a full vote that afternoon. Later – before the full House – Williams, while discussing Xenia’s lawsuit for a second time, apparently called transgender people who apply shared public facilities to change their clothes “perverts.”
“As long as I live, I will prevent perverts from exposing children to indecent material,” Williams said.
LGBTQ+ leaders condemn the bill
Executive Director and CEO of the company Equality Ohio Education Fund and Equality Ohio Dwayne Steward issued a written statement condemning the bill.
“This bill takes ordinary, everyday activities and turns them into potential crimes based on whether someone else might be offended by what other people are wearing,” Steward said in a written statement.
“This bill gives the government unacceptable powers to control what people wear,” Steward added.
“Dragging is just the beginning,” Steward said. “Attacks on drag queens and transgender people, like many bills restricting LGBTQ+ visibility, have many consequences that threaten fundamental freedoms and safety.”
Rep. Dontavious L. Jarrells (D-Columbus) vehemently opposed the bill, citing his own experience navigating anti-Black legislation.
“This bill is not about children,” Jarrells said. “It’s about dehumanizing people who don’t look like me.”
“This bill literally singles out trans people, singles out gender non-conforming people, and basically questions, ‘Should you exist in the public eye?’ That is the reality of this bill,” he added. “When you talk about what this bill really is, it is an attack on human life.” 🔥
Ignite the action
- To access The Buckeye Flame Ohio’s 2026 LGBTQ+ legislation guide, click here.
- To register to vote or check your eligibility to vote in Ohio, click here.
- To find the contact information for your Ohio State Representative, click here.
- To find contact information for an Ohio State Senator, click here.
- If you are a newborn LGBTQ+ person in crisis, please contact Trevor’s project: 866-4-U-Trevor.
- If you are a transgender adult in need of immediate aid, please contact National Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
