COLUMBUS — Another late night at the Ohio Statehouse, another vote on gender.
The last vote of Wednesday’s session before the Ohio House of Representatives recessed for at least the summer was to send the Senate a bill to require K-12 schools, colleges, and universities — public and private — to designate bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and changing rooms for the exclusive use of a single “biological sex.”
Any final votes, however, will have to wait until fall as the Ohio Senate had already gone home before the 60-31 vote took place in the House shortly before 11 p.m.
“I just celebrated my 40th birthday, and in those 40 years I’ve learned three truths: One day I will die. I will always pay taxes, and boys can never become girls,” Rep. Josh Williams (R., Sylvania) said. “Therefore, boys should not be in girls’ locker rooms.”
The amendment, mirroring a bill that had not reached the floor on its own, was amended into Senate Bill 104. That bill dealt with the College Credit Plus Program spelling out how high school students can earn college credits.
“One in five children in this state lives in poverty and doesn’t know where their next meal is going to come from ..., and this is what we’re spending our time and energy on?” House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D., Upper Arlington) said on the floor.
“I’m sorry, but don’t tell me that your school districts are coming to you begging for this,” she said. “Baloney. ... They are not talking about bathrooms.”
She characterized the vote as “red meat” for the Republican base.
The final bill passed solely with Republican votes. Two members of the caucus broke ranks to join Democrats in opposition. The entire northwest Ohio delegation voted along party lines.
In addition to mandating separately marked bathrooms, the bill prohibits K-12 schools from allowing students of different genders to share overnight accommodations.
It defines “biological sex” as that determined by genitalia and other factors at birth, regardless of how the student self-identifies. It does not address how the sex of a person suspected of violating such a law would be determined in the moment.
“We continue to focus on children’s genitals rather than their education, which was the original intent of this bill ...,” Rep. Beth Liston (D., Dublin) said. “As a woman, I neither want nor need your protection, and I’m frankly sick of being told otherwise when it’s clear from all data out there that it is adult cisgender men that are the danger in the bathroom or otherwise.”
North Carolina passed the first such law in 2015 and faced a national boycott as a result. The federal government under then President Barack Obama sued. The policy was eventually rescinded.
But a number of other states from Florida to Utah have since followed with variations on the theme. Opponents predict that Ohio’s version will face a constitutional challenge as have recent laws prohibiting most gender-affirming medical care for minors and barring those born biologically male from participating in female-only sports.
Such a law would also fly in the face of federal guidance under Title IX that says how a student self-identifies should be the determiner of their sex as opposed to that applied at birth.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is among Republican state attorneys general who have sued over the federal government’s interpretation.
“There are some schools in the state of Ohio that are allowing multiple people into the restroom and then they get in trouble with their school board, with their community,” said Rep. Adam Bird (R., New Richmond), sponsor of the original bill. “And the opposite of that happens as well. ... They need clarity on this issue.”
Ohio’s bill allows for exceptions for parents to accompany children under the age of 10 into restrooms, those assisting the disabled, certain school employees, and emergencies.
“No young girl who’s uncomfortable with her body and thinks that she might be a boy is safe going into a boys’ locker room or bathroom. ... And it’s up to us to make the choices to do what’s best for all kids,” said Rep. Beth Lear (R., Galena), also an original bill sponsor.
Dr. Liston noted that the bill would go beyond K-12 students to affect adults in colleges and universities.
“We are turning people into bathroom police, inserting the state government into what I would argue is the most private aspects of people’s lives,” she said.
First Published June 27, 2024, 3:12 p.m.
