Governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, issued an executive order on Friday prohibiting institutions from performing gender-affirming procedures on patients under the age of 18. These procedures are frequently referred to as top and bottom surgeries in the transgender community.
The action follows the governor’s veto of a more comprehensive bill last week that would have outlawed gender-affirming hormone therapy and puberty blockers, two types of healthcare that transgender young people in the United States receive much more frequently.
House Bill 68, which was vetoed, would have also prohibited transgender women and girls from competing on Ohio high school and college ladies’ and women’s sports teams.
The state government could bypass DeWine’s veto because HB 68 was passed with a majority of Republican support. The Columbus Dispatch, a division of the USA TODAY Network, reports that a bypass vote might occur as soon as next year.
Trans activists across the nation praised the decision after DeWine vetoed HB 68, claiming that the Republican governor had sent a message to the rest of the party, which had been successful in passing anti-LGBT laws in their power states over the previous three years.
Despite DeWine’s veto, trans advocacy groups in Ohio issued a warning last week about the impending harm that young trans Ohioans might experience.
Despite DeWine’s veto, TransOhio, a trans-led national LGBTQ advocacy group, launched an emergency fund for people who might need to seek treatment out-of-state. The organization also claimed that HB 68 is “deeply discriminatory” and that it “endangers the rights and safety of transgender children and their families in Ohio.”
Some young people undergo gender-affirming surgery, according to advocates.
Families of transgender youth and transgender activists in Ohio claim to be concerned about what would happen if the state overrode DeWine’s veto of HB 68 and outlawed gender-affirming hormone treatments.
According to researchers, DeWine’s decision to outlaw gender-affirming surgeries impacts a relatively small number of transgender minors. According to Imara Jones, a trans activist and the founder of TransLash Media, young people who are questioning their sex frequently transition politically by using new pronouns and expressing it externally through new clothing, hairstyles, and makeup.
According to Jones, “Gender-affirming care for the majority of children is essentially just affirming their identity.” “The medical establishment has nothing to do with it.”
Contributing: Columbus Dispatch’s Haley BeMiller.
