Anti-trans bills combined in HB 68 pass, head to Governor for signing
I have really dropped the ball on keeping you abreast of anti-LGBTQ+ policies in the Ohio Legislature, which passed two major ones last week combined in House Bill 68. HB 68 prohibits doctors from providing gender-affirming care to trans youth in Ohio. HB 6, added in, prohibits trans youth from participating on girls’ school teams in Ohio. The bill now heads to Gov. DeWine, who has ten business days to decide on whether or not to sign it. HB 68 was passed despite the massive preponderance of opponent testimony from representatives of major health care institutions, mental health providers, providers of children’s services, educators, and people of faith including Episcopalians. Here is the link to email your views to Gov. DeWine.
The Episcopal Church adopted resolutions (see p. 62) calling on Episcopalians to “advocate for access to gender affirming care in all forms (social, medical, or any other) and at all ages,” support “public policies at the local, state, and national levels in all our countries to support gender affirming care,” (GC 2022-D066) and to “oppose all legislation seeking to deny dignity, equality, and civil rights of transgender people (EC 062016.08).”
This bill, which was described by Ohio theologian Dr. Ben Huelskamp in his Dec. 18 blog as ‘state-sponsored bullying,” signals to transgender youth and their families that Ohio is unsafe. The 2018 General Convention also passed a resolution condemning (see p. 25) “the continued use of scapegoating language in all its forms and protecting the various status of individuals who are made vulnerable in our current society. The church repudiates the acts of violence that inevitably result from the rhetoric and tactics of political scapegoating.” (GC 2018-A230).
HB 68 bans puberty blockers and hormone surgery, and prohibits surgeons from performing gender reassignment on a minor, but many opponents testified that no Ohio children’s hospital currently provides this surgery to patients under 18. The Ohio Capital Journal reports that “gender-affirming care is supported by every major medical organization in the United States. Children’s hospitals across Ohio, the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association and the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians all oppose HB 68.”
If the bill becomes law, healthcare providers could lose their licenses and be sued for providing the services it bans. Medicaid would not cover gender-affirming care for minors, meaning that the bill would hit low-income families hardest.
Ohio only had six transgender female high school student athletes last spring. News 5 Cleveland cited the Ohio High School Athletic Association data that about 400,000 students participate on teams in grades 7-12 in Ohio, so these six students represent 0.000015% of Ohio school athletes in middle and high school. “If a trans girl wants to play on a team with cis girls in Ohio, she must go through hormone treatments for at least one year or show no physical or physiological advantages, according to the Ohio High School Athletic Association,” reported Megan Henry in the Ohio Capital Journal. “Twenty-three states have passed similar laws in regards to transgender athletes since 2020, according to ESPN.”
No final vote yet on bill that would prohibit mandatory DEI at Ohio’s public colleges and universities
Senate Bill 83, passed by the Ohio Senate and narrowly approved by the Ohio House Higher Education Committee, did not appear on last Wednesday’s House agenda, so the House will not vote on it in 2023. “SB 83 is at the center of a power struggle between Republican leaders in the Ohio House and Senate,” says USA Today’s Statehouse reporter Jessie Balmert, with Senate President Matt Huffman pushing it and House Speaker Jason Stephens urging caution.
In addition to banning most mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the bill would ban universities from endorsing any “controversial beliefs or policies” including on electoral politics, climate change, immigration, marriage, and abortion. The Episcopal Church’s Becoming Beloved Community initiative, which is central to our diocese’s current formation and mission, is a DEI program rooted in our Baptismal vows. The Episcopal Church has passed many resolutions supporting racial justice, civil rights, voting rights, marriage equality, climate action, protections for immigrants, and reproductive rights. The Presiding Bishop again appointed a top-level delegation to the UN Climate Conference this month, including several bishops.
SB 83 generated a massive outpouring of opponent testimony in 2023, including Episcopalians from our diocese. You can read that testimony – and count the opponents and proponents – here. The bill will come up again in 2024, the second year of the 135th General Assembly. A vote in the Ohio House is all that remains to decide whether it will be sent to the Governor to be signed into law.
“The proposed legislation is a reaction to the conservative belief that colleges and universities are imposing liberal philosophies on students to the detriment of true intellectual diversity,” Balmert reported. “The bill’s sponsor Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, says the changes are needed to attract faculty and students to Ohio.
“However, Florida passed similar legislation, leading to an exodus of faculty at several universities, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. One Florida A&M professor described the changes there as ‘an intellectual reign of terror’ in an American Association of University Professors report.
Balmert continues with this quote: “’in its current form, the bill would cause irreversible damage to Ohio higher education, and we are grateful that House leadership is taking the legislation seriously,’ said Sara Kilpatrick, executive director of the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors. “Ohioans across the political spectrum have sent a clear message that this bill is bad for students, bad for workers, bad for higher education and bad for Ohio.’”
Multicultural education bill has second hearing
House Bill 171 would expand Ohio’s model social studies curriculum to include the migration history and social contributions of groups not previously explicitly listed in the state’s educational requirements: Asian-American and Pacific Islanders; Arabs, North Africans, immigrants, refugees and asylees; Appalachian, Jewish, and Latin Americans. The second (proponent) hearing was held in the Ohio House Primary and Secondary Education Committee on Dec. 12. The bill’s sponsor is State Rep. Mary Lightbody (D- Westerville) who represents several communities east of Columbus including New Albany.
“Ohio law currently requires that schools teach ‘the relevant contributions to society of men and women of African, Mexican, Puerto Rican, and American Indian descent as well as other ethnic and racial groups in Ohio and the United States,’” explains a news story in Ideastream Public Media. More than 70 people submitted proponent testimony for last week’s hearing, including representatives from the Ohio Council for the Social Studies (OCSS).
“For students of color, studying different ethnicities has a profound impact. It cultivates a strong sense of school belonging,” said OCSS Vice-President and Associate Professor of Education at Ohio Wesleyan University Sarah Kaka. “This is the ideal time to add content that will inevitably make all of Ohio students more knowledgeable about the world around them.” The bill is also endorsed by the Ohio Federation of Teachers and Honesty for Ohio Education.
The testimony by Cynthia Peeples, founding director of Honesty for Ohio Education, is particularly poignant, citing her own children’s experience (she is Korean-American and her husband is African-American), as well as findings by the American Psychological Association and other researchers on the vital importance of inclusive education for mental and physical health.
“Ohio teachers need rich, comprehensive, culturally relevant curriculum and instructional materials to prepare students for a global economy and international workplace,” she writes. “While more than 30% of Ohio K-12 students identify as American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic, and multiracial, the Ohio Department of Education shared that more than 90% of Ohio educators are white, and about 1 in 3 school districts in Ohio has a completely white teaching staff. Our educators need high-quality, diverse classroom materials that can support high-quality, culturally competent teaching.”
Advocacy briefings are compiled by Ariel Miller, a longtime community advocate and member of Ascension & Holy Trinity, Wyoming. Connect with her at arielmillerwriter@gmail.com.
