The Ohio Senate voted on Wednesday to override Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of HB 68, which forbids transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming care and limits their ability to participate in sports. On January 10, the Ohio House voted to bypass the governor’s veto. The governor’s veto can be nullified if there are two votes to override, and the law will take effect.
HB 68 states that doctors are not permitted to “prescribe cross-sex hormones or puberty-blocking medication for minor minors for the purpose of assisting the minor person with gender transition” or “engage in conduct that aids or abets” such care, with an exception for constitutionally protected speech. This essentially forbids doctors from treating transgender children in a gender-affirming manner. The law constrains the ability of healthcare professionals to diagnose gender dysphoria, stating that they can only do so with a parent’s consent. Additionally, it prohibits doctors from performing gender-reassignment surgeries on minors.
There are some exceptions to the prohibition on gender-related surgeries and hormonal treatment, such as young people who are currently receiving gender-affirming care. People born with “a medically verifiable disorder of sexual development,” such as those who “have external genetic characteristics that are unambiguously ambiguous,” are among the major exceptions. This likely refers to intersex individuals, who do not fit the traditional definitions of male and female. Doctors often perform surgeries on intersex individuals at birth or provide them with hormonal care to align them more closely with male or female characteristics.
Some transgender individuals and their families argue that these procedures can be coercive or non-consensual, violating one’s right to bodily autonomy. One family told ABC News that they oppose the bans on gender-affirming care and their exceptions for intersex people:
“Intersex people are told the opposite, saying things like, ‘You can’t possibly know anything about your body because you’re way too young.’ You can’t possibly wait until you’re old enough to understand because choosing your gender is so crucial.”
The American Medical Association has defended gender-affirming healthcare and plans to do so even more vigorously in 2023. HB 68 was previously criticized by the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, which stated that it “could be devastating to children and their families who are already at their most vulnerable and may place an insurmountable barrier between individuals and the healthcare professionals for often life-saving care.”
In addition to restrictions on gender-affirming care, HB 68 mandates sex-separated sports in schools and specifically states that transgender girls cannot participate in women’s sports. The law prohibits businesses or local governments from handling complaints, launching investigations, or taking any other action against schools that uphold this policy.
The vote comes amidst a wave of anti-LGBT+ and transgender legislation in conservative states. A prominent LGBTQ+ rights organization declared a state of emergency in the US last month, echoing UN experts’ concerns that state governments were “deliberately undermining” the issue. The Human Rights Campaign has criticized Republican-controlled states as being “increasingly hostile to LGBTQ+ folks,” indicating that LGBT+ rights in the US are deteriorating along state and political lines.
In 2023, state legislatures passed a record-breaking number of anti-LGBT+ bills. Due to strict laws targeting drag performances and classroom discussions, Tennessee and Florida received special attention. However, other states, including Texas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, have also passed legislation prohibiting gender-affirming care. A legislator in West Virginia recently introduced a bill to criminalize trans people as “obscene matter.”
Many of these laws have been challenged by protesters and families, with varying degrees of success. A federal court overturned Arkansas’s restrictions on gender-affirming care, but Kentucky and Tennessee both upheld similar bans.
