Just a small number of Republican governors, including DeWine, have vetoed anti-trans legislation.
Republican Governor of Ohio Mike DeWine vetoed a proposed law on Friday that would have prohibited gender-affirming care for Ohio’s transgender youth, breaking with the conservative lawmakers in his state.
Transgender student athletes would not have been permitted to participate in girls’ sports teams under the same law, known as House Bill 68.
Although DeWine expressed the veto in the conservative-friendly speech of small government and parents’ rights in a statement he released on Friday, it is in line with the opinions of Ohio liberals and transgender rights activists.
Ohio would be claiming that the state, or the government, knows what is medically ideal for a child better than the two people who love that child the most, the parents, if I were to sign House Bill 68 or had it become law, said DeWine. “While there are a few instances in the law—in other situations—where the state overturns the parents’ medical decisions, I can’t think of any instance where this is done, not only against their decision but also against the treating physician’s and the team of medical experts’ own medical judgment.”
In the same statement, DeWine stated that before making his choice, he had spoken with health professionals, adult transgender people who had received gender-affirming care as children, and the parents of those children. Progressive groups like the Ohio ACLU had also relied on DeWine to defeat the act; in particular, they had intensified their pressure campaign against the governor after state legislators passed it on December 13.
DeWine’s declaration on Friday mirrored what the ACLU had said about the bill.
The Ohio ACLU called for a letter-writing campaign from earlier this month, saying that “important clinical decisions should be between students, their families, and health providers, not our politicians.”
DeWine stated that despite this, he continued to support state Republicans in their opposition to the medical care for transgender young people and that his goal was to work to outlaw such procedures in Ohio.
He also expressed his opposition to “pop-up” clinics that would provide children with “inadequate or even ideological treatments” and his support for unknown Ohio agencies to gather more “detailed data regarding persons who receive this care.” Whether “this care” referred to medical care specifically or gender-affirming care in general was not specified in the statement. Additionally, it was unclear what DeWine meant by “ideological solutions” in this context.
DeWine stated, “I am now directing our agencies to immediately review rules to require reporting to the appropriate agencies and to review this information for the General Assembly and the public every six months.” “We will carry out this action both when the patients are adults and when they are adolescents.”
Following Asa Hutchinson’s veto of a similar law in April 2021, DeWine is the next Republican governor to veto legislation from his own party that forbids gender-affirming treatment. Two days later, Hutchinson’s veto was overruled by the Republican-controlled Arkansas Legislature.
In March 2022, bills prohibiting trans athletes from participating in women’s sports were also vetoed by the Democratic governors of Utah and Indiana. State legislators quickly overrode these vetoes, just like they did with Hutchinson.
Democratic State Representative Gary Click, the primary sponsor of House Bill 68, did not say whether the GOP-controlled Ohio legislature might also seek to override DeWine in a statement.
“I am glad that the governor wants to work together to find a common solution, despite our initial disagreements on some of these issues. I am hopeful that increased communication will lead to the best solution for our wonderful state,” Click said, bemoaning the lack of support for the girls’ sports that he claims transgender athletes represent.
“Equality, dignity, and privacy in the athletic arena shouldn’t have to wait another day for our young women.” They have been delayed for far too long. Watching Ohio’s women suffer yet another setback in receiving the right they deserve is difficult,” according to Click.
Just about 1.15% of all Ohio children between the ages of 13 and 17—roughly 8,500 children in total—identify as transgender, according to a 2022 review by the Williams Institute at the University of California. Only 0.51% of Ohioans over the age of 18, or roughly 46,500 people, identify as transgender, making the number even lower among adults.
Less than 20 transgender women have been allowed to play on high school girls’ sports teams since 2015, according to the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Ohio.
