Ohio State Building. (Photo: Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal).
Republican sponsors of a up-to-date Ohio bill aimed at protecting parents who reject their children’s transgender identities during child welfare investigations and parental fitness disputes engaged in heated debates Wednesday with Democratic members of an Ohio House committee.
During the first hearing on Ohio House Bill 693state Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, and Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Twp., spoke about the “woke ideology” they believe Democrats are using to accept transgender children.
Click and Williams’ bill would prohibit child welfare agencies, adoption and foster care providers, and even investigators from using a child’s refusal to acknowledge a child’s gender identity against parents or guardians.
The bill would establish in state law that insisting on a child’s gender at birth does not legally qualify as neglect, is not “contrary to the best interests of the child,” and would not create an “unsafe environment” for the child.
During discussion of the bill, state Rep. Eric Synenberg, D-Beachwood, repeatedly asked whether the bill’s authors “accepted and recognized” that transgender people, including children, exist.
He reviewed Click’s written testimony, which shows that Click trusted the commission “to protect the dignity of all families in the state of Ohio.”
“My thought is what about the dignity and mental well-being of children in Ohio,” Synenberg said.
When Click and Williams didn’t answer his question about transgender recognition, he asked it again.
Click called it a “trick question” and questions about gender identity a “mental health issue.”
“Do I believe that a boy was born with a girl’s brain or that a girl was born with a boy’s brain and that anyone can be born in the wrong body,” Click asked Synenberg.
“I don’t think it’s scientifically accurate. There’s no science to support it,” Click said.
All major US medical associations support gender-affirming care.
According to American Psychological Association“many transgender people do not perceive their gender as distressing or disabling, which means that identifying as transgender does not constitute a mental disorder.”
“For these people, a significant challenge is finding affordable resources such as counseling, hormone therapy, medical procedures, and social support necessary to freely express their gender identity and minimize discrimination,” APA says on its website.
Williams said that while he acknowledges that there are people who “believe they are of the opposite sex,” he sees it as a “false belief and I believe that perpetuating that false belief is harmful to our society.”
“We are not here to debate the science behind this phenomenon,” he said. “We are simply saying (in HB 693) that parents have the right to raise their children as they see fit.”
The bill will also impact the areas of health care, professional licensing, employment, data collection and contracts for educational materials.
This measure prohibits the apply of material containing information indicating that stating a child’s gender at birth in relation to a transgender person could cause psychological harm or a security risk.
Click said that both the bill and his previous bill, which banned gender-affirming care for minors, “did not and still do not tell families that they cannot socially affirm their children, and we still do not propose it, and we still do not propose it.”
“I personally think it’s a bad idea,” Click said. “Children need guidance from their parents.”
Democratic state Rep. Beryl Brown Piccolantonio, D-Gahanna, voiced her opposition to the bill, expressing exhaustion.
“I find this repeated conversation (on transgender issues) exhausting when real issues are being raised, including issues related to… I think you touched on child sexual abuse,” Piccolantonio told the bill’s sponsors. “There are real issues that we are not talking about in committee right now.”
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