A judge in Columbus, Ohio, partially vetoed a controversial bill that would forbid transgender youth from participating in athletics on teams that reflect their gender identity and prohibits trans students from competing in sports based on their gender identity.
House Bill 68, which would have prevented LGBTQ+ minors from receiving care like hormone blockers, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and some mental health services, has received a temporary restraining order from the Republican Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Holbrook. Additionally, it would have prohibited transgender athletes from competing in middle and high school sports.
H.B. 68 requires schools, state institutions of higher education, and private schools to create separate single-sex teams and activities for each gender in addition to this requirement. The bill provides the opportunity for legal action.
The ACLU of Ohio is pleased to have won the case, which was filed on behalf of a transgender child and their family.
“We are thrilled and relieved that Ohio’s restrictions on gender-affirming health treatment have been halted, and that transgender youth remain, for the near term at least, able to receive medically necessary care. Our legal challenge will continue until, we hope, this cruel limitation is completely blocked. Ohio families have a constitutional right to make personal healthcare decisions without government intrusion,” said Freda Levenson, their Legal Director.
The TRO is for two weeks, but it is promising. The legislation was scheduled to go into effect the following year.
“The court ruled in our favor, and transgender youth live for another day,” according to Mallory Golski of the Kaleidoscope Youth Center (KYC).
Through education programming and discussion groups, KYC aims to foster a sense of belonging for LGBTQ+ teenagers. Many of the transgender individuals who visit the facility have been terrified and heartbroken by the thought of never receiving their medical care.
“The fact that this challenge is not in place, at least for the time being, is amazing because it will allow people to begin gaining access to that care sooner, to begin living as their true selves that little bit sooner,” she continued.
She says it is significant that Holbrook is a Republican, yet put forward the block.
“The fact that this is coming from a Republican judge, according to the advocate, is ‘absolutely a sign of how widespread the support is for trans youth’ and how numerous pieces of legislation have been the result of that extremist gerrymandered legislature,” she said. It is “not representative of the opinions of the majority of Ohioans.”
This is a subject that has caught the attention of Columbus’s lawmakers. After Ohio Republicans overrode the governorship, more than 100 families with transgender members made plans to leave the state earlier this year, according to a report released. Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill banning gender-affirming care.
In Ohio, more than 100 trans families are attempting to leave the state amid a new gender-affirming care ban.
In December, DeWine vetoed the legislation and said: “Were House Bill 68 to become law, Ohio would be saying that the state, that the government, knows better what is medically best for a child better than the two people who love the child the most – the parents. Because this bill is currently being written, and I only recently vetoed it, I am unable to sign it.”
The majority of Republican lawmakers voted in favor of DeWine the following month.
“We broke the news of the TRO to the governor’s team, so they did not have a comment at this time.
This is not the end-all-be-all for gender-affirming care, but Golski remarked,” We know that this is a really, really positive step toward protecting this care for trans youth.” ” The fight for accessing gender-affirming care is far from over.”
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