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Tag: House Bill 183

Ohio House passes transgender bathroom and locker room ban for K-12 schools and colleges

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House Bill 183 was added to Senate Bill 104 as an amendment on the House floor late Wednesday night, then S.B. 104 passed as amended with a 60-31 vote.

BY: MEGAN HENRY – Ohio Capital Journal

The Ohio House passed a bill late Wednesday night amid its last session before going on summer break that would ban transgender students from using the bathroom and locker rooms that match up with their gender identity.

House Bill 183 was added to Senate Bill 104 as an amendment on the House floor Wednesday night, then S.B. 104 passed as amended with a 60-31 vote. All House Democrats who were present voted against the bill. Republicans Jamie Callender and Gayle Manning also voted against the bill.

State Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, introduced Senate Bill 104, which revises the College Credit Plus Program.

The bill heads back to the Senate to concur, but the lawmakers are now on summer break.

What is in H.B. 183?

State Reps. Beth Lear, R-Galena, and Adam Bird, R-New Richmond, introduced H.B. 183, which would make Ohio K-12 schools and colleges mandate that students can only use the bathroom or locker room that aligns with their gender assigned at birth.

“Boys and girls should not be in locker rooms together,” Lear said. “They should not be in bathrooms together and they should not be sharing overnight accommodations.”

Bird said school superintendents from around the state came to him saying they need this bill.

“Superintendents and school boards, they need clarity on this issue,” Bird said. “…We want to protect women and girls from assault, from intimidation.”

The bill would not prohibit a school from having single-occupancy facilities and it would not apply to someone helping a person with a disability or a child younger than 10 years old being assisted by a parent, guardian, or family member.

The American Medical Association officially opposes policies preventing transgender individuals from accessing basic human services and public facilities consistent with gender identity.

Thirty percent of LGBTQ+ students said they were prevented from using the bathroom that aligned with their gender, and 26% were stopped from using the locker room that aligned with their gender, according to Ohio’s 2021 state snapshot by GLSEN, which examines the school experiences of LGBTQ middle and high school students.

When looking specifically at transgender and nonbinary students, 42% were prevented from using the bathroom that aligned with their gender and 36% couldn’t use the locker room that aligned with their gender, according to the Ohio GLSEN report.

More than 100 people testified against the bill in the House Higher Education Committee.

Debate on the House floor

There was about 30 minutes of debate over the bathroom ban amendment before it was voted favorably out of the House.

Democrats opposing the bill said it is an attack on Ohio’s most marginalized students.

“I didn’t anticipate that we would be using the power of the state to bully transgender children and individuals today,” State Rep. Beth Liston, D-Dublin, said. “I will reiterate my concern that we continue to focus on children’s genitals rather than their education. As far as protecting girls and women, I will tell you as a woman, I do not want nor need your protection.”

State Rep. Beryl Brown Piccolantonio, D-Gahanna, said she testified against this bill back when she was the president of the Gahanna-Jefferson School Board, before she was sworn in as a legislator.

“Most egregiously, this bill needlessly targets some of our most marginalized students,” she said. “And worse than that, it targets a basic human function for which every single one of us deserves privacy. This is not what any of the children need.”

House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, shared her frustration with Republican lawmakers for spending time on the bathroom bill when there are other pressing issues in schools such as the teacher shortage or busing issues.

“Here we are, again, I think focusing on the wrong things,” she said. “There’s so many things that need to be done in our school districts and for schools and for our students. But this body continues, over and over again, to focus on the small group of children and target and bully children. … This is what we’re spending our time and energy on. I’m sorry, but don’t tell me your school districts are coming to you begging for this. Baloney.”

Russo has three school-aged children.

“No one has talked to me about this,” she said. “This is a made up problem.”

Republicans argued the bill makes sense.

State Rep. Jena Powell, R-Arcanum, said the bathroom bill amendment is probably the most straightforward piece of legislation lawmakers will vote on for the next few years.

“This is easy,” she said. “This is simple. This should not be complicated.”

Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Twitter.

MEGAN HENRY

Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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Jun 28, 2024
Transgender student bathroom ban bill passes out of Ohio House Higher Education Committee

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House Bill 183 would require Ohio K-12 schools and colleges to mandate that students could only use the bathroom or locker room that matches their sex assigned at birth.

Local Cosponsors are:

Jean Schmidt, District 62 (R)

Jennifer Gross, District 45 (R)

Thomas Hall, District 46 (R)

Bill Seitz, District, 30 (R)

BY: MEGAN HENRY – Ohio Capital Journal

A bill that would ban transgender students from using the bathroom and locker room that matches up with their gender identity passed out of the Ohio House Higher Education Committee Wednesday by a 10-5 party line vote.

State Reps. Beth Lear, R-Galena, and Adam Bird, R-New Richmond, introduced House Bill 183 which would require Ohio 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.

HB 183 now awaits further consideration in the House, which is next scheduled to be in session April 24.

Parents, grandparents, and school superintendents asked Bird for this bill, he said.

The American Medical Association officially opposes policies preventing transgender individuals from accessing basic human services and public facilities consistent with gender identity.

HB 183 would not prohibit a school from having single-occupancy facilities and it would not apply to someone helping a person with a disability or a child younger than 10 years old being assisted by a parent, guardian, or family member.

State Rep. Gayle Manning, R- North Ridgeville, thought about bringing an amendment to the committee that would have carved colleges and universities out of the bill, but she decided against it.

“I’m hopeful we will continue to have these discussions on the removal of higher ed,” she said. “The reason being, we’re talking about adults. Universities are similar to a city with the number of students that they have. Frivolous lawsuits that will increase the cost of tuition eventually and the cost of our families.”

Manning voted in favor of the bill even though she hopes lawmakers can continue conversations to “find a better solution.”

Bird opposes taking the higher education component out of the bill.

“The reason I oppose that is because we have college credit plus in Ohio,” he said. “We seventh graders going to college, kids in high school going to colleges and in that college environment, we got to make sure they are protected.”

State Rep. Joe Miller, D-Amherst, vocalized his disdain for the bill before the committee voted.

“Here we are again … taking away school districts and colleges’ ability and their leadership to make decisions that are best for providing safe, equitable access for all Ohio students,” Miller said. “I hope that this doesn’t see the floor and doesn’t see the governor’s desk.”

More than 100 people submitted opponent testimony on HB 183 and more than 30 people submitted proponent testimony.

“We do love and care about all kids,” Bird said when asked about all the backlash the bill has received. “Me and my Republican colleagues have heard from constituents all across the state. They may not have been loud. They may not have been vocal. They may not have come with a sign to the Statehouse, but we are here representing the vast majority of Ohioans who want protections.”

Trans advocates speak out against HB 183

Transgender advocates hosted a press conference following the House Higher Education Committee to voice their opposition to HB 183.

Trans Ohio Board Member Carson Hartlage said HB 183 is harmful to all students, including cisgender students.

“Most trans non binary and gender non conforming students only begin using restrooms that align with their gender identities after they’ve experienced some form of trauma when using a restroom that aligns with their sex assigned at birth,” Hartlage said.

Thirty percent of LGBTQ+ students said they were prevented from using the bathroom that aligned with their gender, and 26% were stopped from using the locker room that aligned with their gender, according to Ohio’s 2021 state snapshot by GLSEN, which examines the school experiences of LGBTQ middle and high school students.

When looking specifically at transgender and nonbinary students, 42% were prevented from using the bathroom that aligned with their gender and 36% couldn’t use the locker room that aligned with their gender, according to the Ohio GLSEN report.

Ohio’s first openly transgender public official and member of the Gahanna-Jefferson Public Schools’ Board of Education Dion Manley shared his concerns.

“As a trans man is I’ve been going into men’s restrooms for 25 years without incident,” Manley said. “I go visit the schools on a regular basis. So these legislators want me to go into a girls restroom in the elementary school, middle school, and high school.”

Mallory Golski, civic engagement and advocacy manager at Kaleidoscope Youth Center, said how Ohio was recently at the center of history in a positive way with Monday’s eclipse.

“We’re here reflecting on how we’re at the epicenter of another piece of history,” she said. “And unfortunately, we’re at the wrong place at the wrong time. Unlike the fleeting blackout of the total solar eclipse, the history I’m talking about here today at the statehouse leaves transgender youth in the dark.”

Jeanne Ogden’s daughter would be directly impacted by this bill. Her daughter’s college classroom building does not have single-use restrooms in the building, forcing her daughter to go across the street to use the restroom.

“These kids getting bullied and yes, their mental health is suffering,” said Ogden, the executive director of Trans Allies of Ohio. “Trans people are tired. Parents are exhausted.”

Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Twitter.

_______________

MEGAN HENRY

Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

MORE FROM AUTHOR

Apr 11, 2024
“An attack on all trans people,” transgender youth speak out against Ohio legislation

Nathan Alvarez, 15, stands outside Kaleidoscope Youth Center on June 23. He is worried about a bill that 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. (Photo by Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal) Ohio Capital Journal talked to three transgender youths who are concerned about these bills and their potential implications.

BY: MEGAN HENRY – Ohio Capital Journal

Nathan Alvarez is used to people laughing or snickering at him when he uses the men’s bathroom.

Despite that, the 15-year-old says his high school is one place he doesn’t have to worry about that happening because they have a couple of gender neutral bathrooms and anyone can use the men and women’s restroom.

But a bill banning transgender students from being able to use the bathroom and locker room that aligns with their gender identity would change all that.

State Reps. Beth Lear, R-Galena, and Adam Bird, R-New Richmond, recently introduced House Bill 183 which 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. HB 183 is still in House committee, awaiting sponsor testimony.

“It would be hell (if the bill were to pass),” Alvarez said, who uses he/him pronouns. “Hearing about it disgusted me. Like it violently disgusted me.”

HB 183 is one of a handful of anti-trans bills that have been introduced so far in the Ohio General Assembly.

Doctors wouldn’t be able to give puberty blockers and hormone therapy to trans youth, trans athletes wouldn’t be able to participate in women’s sports, educators would be forced to out students to their parents and require public schools to give parental notification before teaching “sexuality content” if these various anti-trans bills pass through the Republican-controlled Ohio Statehouse.

OCJ talked to three transgender youths who are concerned about these bills and their potential implications.

“It’s an attack on all trans people,” said Ko Rupert, who uses she/it pronouns. “They are all uniquely bad, but their uniqueness is important.”

And it’s not just happening in Ohio.

There have been more than 220 bills introduced nationwide specifically targeting transgender and non-binary people, according to the Human Rights Campaign year-to-date snapshot from May 23.

Fifteen laws have been enacted banning gender affirming care for transgender youth and four additional laws have been passed that censor school curriculum like books, according to HRC.

“It’s very hard to see what’s been already happening in other states and how the bills that they are trying to pass here in Ohio are not even that different,” Jaylah Hollins, 19 said. “I feel like it’s not really in the interest of Ohioans, but only in the interest of anti-trans lobbyists from out of state.”

House Bill 8

Hollins is going to start attending Columbus State Community College this fall for social work and hopes to one day work for an organization that helps transgender people.

“Hopefully if these bills don’t pass, we can try and make Ohio a place where it can be a refuge for trans kids and trans adults,” Hollins, said, who uses she/her pronouns. “Ensuring that trans kids have access to medical care and that adults have access to the facilities that align with their gender identity shouldn’t be politicized in the first place.”

An advocate for the rights of trans children and their parents holds up a sign. Photo by Morgan Trau, WEWS.

While she said all the anti-trans bills are harmful, House Bill 8 stands out to her as the most damning.

State Reps. D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron, and Sara Carruthers, R-Hamilton, introduced HB 8 which would require public schools to give parents a heads up before teaching “sexuality content” and school staff would have to out students to their parents. HB 8 recently passed the Ohio House.

“I feel like they don’t see it as putting children in harm’s way when it most likely is because you can’t expect a parent to be able to deal with knowing that their child is within an LGBT umbrella and not have to try and resort to what they may not see at the time as harmful approaches to their child’s identity,” Hollins said.

She said these bills would prevent children from learning more about themselves and make them feel as though they deserved to be punished because of how they identify.

“It won’t allow children to be able to understand others who are maybe different from them,” Hollins said. “It will encourage isolation and I think the most devastating would be suicidal ideation, especially with trans and non-binaries who already know that they are coming from families who are unaccepting of those identities.”

She’s said she’s still debating if she’ll stay in Ohio after college.

“It’s still hard for me to think about, but for me, I think I would want to stay in Ohio and fight for trans youth,” Hollins said.

Rupert, a 20-year-old Ohio State University graduate student, is also worried about HB 8 and the stripping away of youth rights.

“Young people can make decisions, can know their bodies and understand and have a deep relationship with their gender and sexuality and romantic orientations,” Rupert said.

Alvarez tries to speak out against the anti-trans bills when he gets the chance and even recently appeared on Good Morning America. But he’s not old enough to vote.

“It’s upsetting to know that there are adults making choices for people to make choices about me. And I don’t have a choice,” Alvarez, of Reynoldsburg, said. “It’s scary.”

He hopes to move out of Ohio one day and relocate to Washington.

Anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ bills

House Bill 68, also known as the Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act (SAFE Act), would prevent doctors from giving puberty blockers and hormone therapy to trans youth. It would also ban physicians from performing gender reassignment surgery on a minor.

Many opponents, however, have testified that no Ohio children’s hospital currently performs gender-affirming surgery on those under 18.

House Bill 6 would prevent trans athletes from participating in Ohio women’s sports and was woven into HB 68, which recently passed the House and now awaits Senate committee consideration.

Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Twitter.

______________________

MEGAN HENRY

Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

MORE FROM AUTHOR

Jul 3, 2023
New bill would ban transgender students from using bathroom that matches gender identity

House Bill 183 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.

State Rep. Jean Schmidt, a Clermont County Republican, is a co-sponsor of the bill.

BY: MEGAN HENRY – Ohio Capital Journal

A bill banning transgender students from being able to use the bathroom and locker room that aligns with their gender identity was recently introduced by a pair of Ohio Republican legislators.

House Bill 183 — 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.

“No school shall permit a member of the female biological sex to use a student restroom, locker room, changing room, or shower room that has been designated by the school for the exclusive use of the male biological sex,” the bill’s language reads. “No school shall permit a member of the male biological sex to use a student restroom, locker room, changing room, or shower room that has been designated by the school for the exclusive use of the female biological sex.”

Lear did not respond to the OCJ’s request for comment. Bird, who was unable to speak to the OCJ, posted on Twitter that the bill is about protecting children.

“Protecting them from what?” Erin Upchurch, Executive Director of Kaleidoscope Youth Center, said in response. “Nobody is being protected with this bill.”

The bill says this would not prohibit a school from having single-occupancy facilities. It also says this would not apply to someone helping a person with a disability or a child younger than 10 years old being assisted by a parent, guardian, or family member.

Other states like Kentucky, Tennessee, and Iowa have laws that ban K-12 transgender students from using bathrooms that match their gender identity. Kansas and Florida both recently passed laws with bathroom bans that go beyond schools.

Opposition

HB 183 has drawn swift opposition and Upchurch said the bill is “blatantly discriminatory.”

“They’re truly fixated on attacking the transgender, non-binary community and especially young people,” Upchurch said. “It’s creating problems that don’t exist … It creates this very, I think, bizarre fixation on body parts and genitals of young people.”

As a parent, she said it’s concerning that people are worried about what’s underneath her children’s clothes.

COLUMBUS, OH — JUNE 18: Members of the LGBTQ+ community and supporters celebrate during the 41st annual Stonewall Columbus Pride March, June 18, 2022, at the High Street, Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes)

“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.”

Thirty percent of LGBTQ+ students said they were prevented from using the bathroom that aligned with their gender, and 26% were stopped from using the locker room that aligned with their gender, according to Ohio’s 2021 state snapshot by GLSEN, which examines the school experiences of LGBTQ middle and high school students.

When looking specifically at transgender and nonbinary students, 42% were prevented from using the bathroom that aligned with their gender and 36% couldn’t use the locker room that aligned with their gender, according to the Ohio GLSEN report.

Nearly 1 in 5 transgender and nonbinary young people attempted suicide in the past year, according to the Trevor Project’s 2023 survey of mental health of LGBTQ youth.

Anti-trans bills in Statehouse

This is the third anti-trans bill that has been introduced so far this General Assembly.

House Bill 68, also known as the Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act (SAFE Act), would prohibit physicians from providing gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, to trans youth. More than 200 people submitted opponent testimony to the House Public Health Committee this week.

House Bill 6, dubbed “Save Women’s Sports Act,” would prevent trans athletes from participating in Ohio women’s sports and youth athletics. The bill was voted out of the House Higher Education Committee earlier this month and is awaiting a full House vote.

“Hatred is the only word I can think of, because I can’t imagine another reason why our adult elected officials are literally coming for and attacking the livelihood, the wellness and the well being of young people,” Upchurch said. “Because they keep adding on to them, it just becomes more and more obvious what they’re trying to do, and that is to obliterate and eradicate an entire community.”

Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Twitter.

MEGAN HENRY

Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the last five years reporting on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

MORE FROM AUTHOR

May 27, 2023