Ohio’s proposed drug ban came before members of the House Judiciary Committee for a second time on Wednesday.
Hearing included public testimony support for the bill by two anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups: Mission America and based in Columbus Center for Christian Virtue (CCV)which is the main driving force behind anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the Ohio Statehouse.
Proposed by Conservative Rep. Angie King (R-Celina) and Rep. Josh Williams (R-Oregon), Ohio House Bill (HB) 249, “Enacting the Indecent Exposure Modernization Act” would ban public drag queen or gender-specific performances outside “adult cabaret” venues.
However, recent public testimony also indicates that anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups and conservative Republicans intend to utilize this bill to target and criminalize transgender Ohioans by limiting their access to shared public facilities such as gender-specific dressing rooms or locker rooms.
People who break the law can face both a first-degree misdemeanor and a fourth- or fifth-degree felony.
Celina residents give public testimony
Public testimony in support of the ban was largely attended by residents of Celina, Republican King’s hometown – including her brother-in-law and Celina City Council President Jason King, who is also a pastor in New Life Christian Center (NLCC).
In 2020, residents organized the city’s first annual LGBTQ+ Pride festival, which was met with significant anti-LGBTQ+ opposition.
In 2023, while actively serving as a state representative, King was filmed protesting Celina’s Small Town Pride parade with self-proclaimed members Aryan Freedom Network (AFN)a rapidly growing neo-Nazi and white supremacist group based in Texas with over 40 chapters across the country.
King said the Small Town Pride festival motivated her to implement the drag queen ban.
Another protester, a conservative Pastor Celina Shawn Meyer – who frequently posts anti-LGBTQ+ content under the pseudonym Hans Meyer – also provided public testimony in support of the bill.
Targeting transgender Ohioans
HB 249 specifically prohibits “performers or entertainers who demonstrate a gender identity other than the performer’s or entertainer’s biological sex by using clothing, makeup, prosthetics, or imitations of genitalia or breasts or other physical characteristics…”
However, the part of the bill that replaces the phrase “private area” with “private area” would assist criminalize transgender and gender non-conforming people who utilize gender-conforming public facilities to change clothing in their daily lives.
CCV executive director of policy David Mahan connected transgender people using gender-specific public facilities, such as dressing rooms and locker rooms, with drag queen performers performing on stages in public entertainment venues.
He cited a separate anti-transgender incident that occurred in 2022, when Greene County resident Janell Holloway filed a lawsuit after seeing a naked transgender woman using a public locker room at a YMCA in the rural community of Xenia.
Holloway and her husband gave public testimony, calling the experience of sharing a locker room with a transgender person “horrifying.”
“My heart was racing. My thoughts were racing. My body was shaking,” she told committee members. “I witnessed evil.”
Holloway had no contact with the transgender person, who dressed and left without incident minutes after she arrived.
In 2023, a municipal court judge found that a transgender person was not guilty of public indecency, but Mahan said HB 249 would assist change that legal outcome for other transgender people in the future.
“This bill will prevent judges from doing so in the future,” he said.
Drag bans to other states
In 2023, Tennessee Republicans passed a similar law reducing public resistance and gender performance. Although the law was challenged, the Tennessee Supreme Court declined to take up the case. However, these restrictions are currently unenforceable due to a federal court ruling.
According to Traffic Development Project (MAP)more or less 16% of LGBTQ+ Americans live in a state with “adult performance” laws that can be used to target or limit public resistance or gender-based performances, including Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota, and Texas.
In Ohio, Mahan concluded his public testimony by ostensibly encouraging Ohioans to identify and report transgender and gender non-conforming people they see using gender-specific public facilities — as well as any gender-specific public performances or performances that include “lewd” or “obscene” activities outside cabaret venues or in the presence of minors.
“The federal government has spent millions of dollars on campaigns encouraging us to report suspicious activity,” he said. “If you see something, say something.”
A third hearing for HB 249 has not yet been scheduled. 🔥
Ignite the action
- Ohio’s 2025 Buckeye Flame LGBTQ+ Legislation Guide can be found 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 adolescent LGBTQ+ person in crisis, please contact Trevor’s project: 866-4-U-Trevor.
- If you are a transgender adult in crisis, please contact: National Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
