While objections to biological males competing in female sports are understandable, the Ohio General Assembly should accept Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of House Bill 68 and focus on more pressing issues under their control.
The governor vetoed the bill that conflicts head-on with science as conveyed by the Ohio medical profession. The bill would have prevented doctors from prescribing hormones, puberty blockers, or gender reassignment surgery before patients turn 18. It also would have prohibited transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams in high school and college.
The question of minors receiving medical treatment to conform their body to the gender they identify as is one that should be left to parents, doctors, and the youths themselves.
The governor vetoed H.B. 68 on Dec. 29 saying that he had spoken with trans youth, families, and the medical profession.
“These are gut-wrenching decisions that should be made by parents and should be informed by teams of doctors who are advising them,” Mr. DeWine said.
Everyone who is up in arms about transgender youths should consider that many relevant medical associations and authorities endorse the value of transgender care. To our knowledge, no institutional medical professional or academic organizations disagree that transgender care is legitimate.
The General Assembly held several hearings and heard testimony from 613 opponents of the bill, including many doctors and psychologists or who represented Ohio hospitals and professional medical and psychological associations.
Fifty-six speakers supported the bill, with only one representing a medical association, the American College of Pediatricians. Critics contend the American College of Pediatricians exists only to oppose LGBTQ issues. The organization is made up of medical professionals who have a point of view on this sensitive topic and they deserve to have their views heard.
Allowing an individual, typically an older teenager, to go forward with gender reassignment affects the teenager himself or herself far more than anyone else.
The right to self determination and the weight of medical opinion recommends that society not attempt to criminalize decisions that are essentially personal.
The legislature should accept the governor’s offer to develop administrative regulations. Those rules will have a better chance of surviving judicial review. Through the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, which is made up of legislators, proposed rules can be recommended for amendment or repeal.
The number of instances of transgender children in Ohio is small. The Ohio High School Athletic Association has a policy that restricts transgender girls from girls’ sports if they “possess physical traits that would undermine girls’ sports.” In the last eight years, there have been 20 transgender females who have participated in high school sports in Ohio.
Sensitivity and compassion are called for. Instead, we suspect sensitivity and compassion are playing second fiddle to the GOP’s quest to continue to inflame its base with culture hot-button topics.
