In May, House Bill 183 was introduced by state Rep. Beth Lear, R-Galena, and state Rep. Adam Bird, R-New Richmond — would require K-12 schools and colleges to mandate that students could only use the bathroom or locker room that matches their sex assigned at birth. It would also prohibit schools from allowing students to share overnight accommodations with the opposite sex. Recently, the bill’s sponsors faced questioning in the House Higher Education Committee.
House Bill 183
According to the Ohio Capital Journal, Bird said he introduced this bill after school district superintendents asked him to craft legislation that addresses this issue.
“We want to protect our children,” he said. “We want to protect our children from exposure to the opposite sex while in a private place like a restroom or locker room.”
Lear repeatedly ignored medical consensus on transgender issues from the American Medical Association and others.
“Boys cannot become girls and girls cannot become boys,” she said. “You can not change DNA.”
Critics of the Bill Call this Legislation Discriminatory and Dangerous
Advocates for the bill cite their intentions to protect children, however critics point out that transgender children are far more susceptible to abuse and likely to suffer more negative effects from legislation that targets them.
“Protecting them from what?” Erin Upchurch, Executive Director of Kaleidoscope Youth Center, said in response. “Nobody is being protected with this bill.”
She continued, “It’s creating problems that don’t exist … It creates this very, I think, bizarre fixation on body parts and genitals of young people.”
Maria Bruno, Public Policy Director of Equality Ohio agrees. She wrote in a statement, “Now, bathrooms in schools will be even more unsafe for trans kids, making them altogether inaccessible,” Maria Bruno, Public Policy Director of Equality Ohio, said in a statement. “The sponsors of this bill should try not to go to the bathroom for 8 hours and tell us how that goes before signing up trans students to have to do exactly that.”
Republican Trend
Ohio’s House Bill 183 is similar to those introduced and passed in states across the country including Kentucky, Tennessee, Iowa Kansas, and Florida. It is a part of a conservative movement looking to push back on rights of transgender Americans.
Many Republicans nationwide have rejected the medical consensus on transgender issues. The American Medical Association officially opposes policies preventing transgender individuals from accessing basic human services and public facilities consistent with gender identity.
Questions from Legislators
In the committee session, many legislatures voiced concerns about the bill. State Rep. Munira Abdullahi, D-Columbus, asked if the bill’s sponsors can tell the difference between a transgender woman and a biological woman.
State Rep. Joe Miller, D-Lorain asked, “As an adjunct professor at a college, I’m not going to know who these kids are and I’m not policing the bathroom.”
State Rep. Beth Liston, D-Dublin, said she is concerned about the assumptions behind the bill, “I’m quite frankly worried about anyone that doesn’t fall into a neat box of what they think a girl is supposed to look like or a boy is supposed to look like,” she said.
