The Ohio Statehouse on Capitol Square in downtown Columbus
Tribune News Service
COLUMBUS, Ohio – An Ohio House committee plodded forward Wednesday on legislation to prevent schools and colleges from allowing transgender Ohioans to use bathrooms that correspond with their assumed gender identities.
The Ohio House Higher Education committee adopted amendments to the bill, first introduced last year, creating exceptions for custodial workers, families of young children, emergencies, and aides to the disabled, but retained the restrictions for transgender students’ use of bathrooms. It prevents schools from establishing any nongendered bathroom.
The committee’s review signals that lawmakers will remain focused on restricting rights of transgender Ohioans in 2024. It came the same day that House Republicans were scheduled to vote to override fellow Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of legislation that prohibited doctors from administering different types of gender-affirming health care to transgender minors. That legislation also prohibits transgender girls from participating in women’s sports. Senate Republicans are expected to do the same next week.
According to state Rep. Beth Lear, a Galena Republican who sponsored the bathroom bill, new amendments adopted Wednesday also allow schools to accept birth certificates issued at or near the time of birth as proof of a student’s sex.
“This issue is about protecting young men, young women, boys and girls,” she said.
State Rep. Adam Bird reiterated the bill is about student safety. He said it leaves schools with discretion as to how to create and enforce their new policy and suggested a scheme of “progressive discipline” for students who violate the rules.
“The penalty would be up to the policy writer in that school and institute of higher ed,” he said.
House Democrats said the legislation is needlessly cruel and doesn’t respond to any real problem facing Ohioans. They also alleged the bill is likely to wind up halted by courts, costing all parties hefty legal tabs.
State Rep. Munira Abdullahi, a Columbus Democrat, cautioned against the notion of giving schools such latitude over the nuts and bolts of figuring out how to apply the new bathroom requirements to new students.
“How do you plan on enforcing this?” she asked.
Both sides of the debate disputed how courts will look at the law. In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a case reviewing a lower court ruling that found transgender students are protected under Title IX, a landmark federal law that prohibits gender discrimination.
The 6th Circuit, which contains Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky, made a similar decision in 2016 when it upheld a district court ruling forcing the Highland Local School District to allow a transgender student to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.
Last year, a U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio rejected a challenge brought by religious parents of the Bethel Local School District that was seeking to overturn the school’s policy that allowed transgender students to use the bathroom that aligns with their assumed gender.
The parents have since appealed the Bethel case to the 6th Circuit.
