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transgender rights
Second Trans Woman's Candidacy Challenged Over Deadname in Ohio
"This effort to remove trans candidates, due to an obscure law, comes at a time when the General Assembly has ramped up efforts to use their role in government to wage an outright attack on the LGBTQ+ community," said Arienne Childrey.
Jan 12, 2024
Days after a transgender woman's campaign for a state House seat in Ohio was abruptly ended over her failure to include the name given to her at birth on her election paperwork, a Republican leader in the state was aiming on Friday to disqualify Arienne Childrey, another transgender candidate.
The chair of the Mercer County Republican Party, Robert Hibner, submitted a letter of protest to local election officials late last week, alleging that Childrey violated a 1995 statute requiring all candidates to include on candidacy petitions any other names they have used within five years of the election.
Childrey, a Democrat, said in a statement that "the name change provision is not included in the Candidate Guide issued by the secretary of state's office, nor any of the other paperwork or forms," and noted that the recent disqualification of state House candidate Vanessa Joy and her own campaign's potential end comes as Republicans in Ohio and across the U.S. are pushing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
"This effort to remove trans candidates, due to an obscure law, comes at a time when the General Assembly has ramped up efforts to use their role in government to wage an outright attack on the LGBTQ+ community," said Childrey.
According toThe Guardian, the 1995 law includes an exception for people who change their name due to marriage, but not one for transgender candidates' deadnames—the names they're given at birth which don't match their gender identity.
Mercer County election officials deemed Hibner's challenge to Childrey invalid this week because state rules require letters of protest to be filed by members of the candidate's party. The county's assistant prosecutor told local reporters on Tuesday that the board can still proceed with a hearing on Childrey's candidacy, which is scheduled for January 18.
"I entered this race to fight for the people of the 84th District and to fight against the rising tide of hatred in our district and our state," said Childrey. "Regardless of the outcome of this hearing, I will continue that fight."
Childrey began her campaign to challenge state Rep. Angela King (R-84), who last year introduced a bill to ban drag performances in public spaces.
On Wednesday, a day after Joy lost her appeal regarding her own candidacy to the Stark County Board of Elections, the GOP-controlled state House voted to override Republican Gov. Mike DeWine's veto of a bill to restrict transgender youths' participation in team sports and ban puberty blockers and other gender-affirming healthcare.
"The transgender community in the United States of America is currently in the midst of a state-sponsored genocide, brought on by the Republican Party," said Joy on Wednesday. "We are currently in stages 8 (persecution) and 9 (extermination) of the genocide of the transgender community. The persecution portion is the incredible amount of legislation being passed to take away our rights, and the extermination portion is the fact that in the states that these laws have passed, deaths will rise within the community."
"Ohio is no exception, and in fact is becoming one of the most dangerous places in the country for transgender people to live," said Joy.
The ACLU tracked 510 anti-LGBTQ+ bills that were introduced, advanced, or passed in 2023, including seven in Ohio. Restrictions on gender-affirming healthcare account for 175 of the bills.
A study out of the University of Washington in 2022 found a 73% decrease in depression and suicidal ideation when transgender people can access gender-affirming treatment.
On Monday, the Mercer County Democratic Party passed a resolution opposing Hibner's complaint over Childrey's candidacy.
"Mr. Hibner's protest is nothing but a hateful attempt to further discriminate against a community not meeting the GOP definition of 'normal'—a radical approach to alienate qualified candidates and stifle the will of the voters," said Don Holtvoigt, vice chair of the party. "The radical right should cease and desist in their efforts to divide our community."
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'Beyond Cruel': Ohio House GOP Overrides Veto of Bill Attacking Trans Kids
"To make matters worse, Ohio is now considering adopting sweeping new rules that would restrict the care that Ohio providers can provide to all transgender patients of all ages," one group noted.
Jan 10, 2024
In another blow to LGBTQ+ rights, Republicans in the Ohio House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn GOP Gov. Mike DeWine's recent veto of legislation that would ban gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth and prohibit them from playing on school sports teams that match their identity.
While announcing his veto of House Bill 68 last month, DeWine—who spoke with families that would be affected by the bill—said, "Many parents have told me that their child would not have survived, would be dead today, if they had not received the treatment they received from one of Ohio's children's hospitals."
Rights groups and impacted families similarly highlighted the stakes after the Ohio House's 65-28 vote on Wednesday, which is expected to be followed by a vote in the state Senate on January 24.
As The Columbus Dispatch reported:
Betty Elswick of Marysville traveled to Columbus on Wednesday to protest the vote with her 16-year-old son, Parker, who has been receiving hormone therapy for four months. Elswick said the family will likely leave Ohio if House Bill 68 becomes law so Parker can access the healthcare he needs.
"If this gets passed through, it's going to kill kids," Parker Elswick said.
"We are extremely disappointed that the Ohio House continued their crusade against transgender youth and their families by returning early for an emergency session to override the governor's veto on H.B. 68," declared the ACLU of Ohio. "This state-sponsored vendetta against some of Ohio's most vulnerable young people is beyond cruel."
"The ACLU of Ohio stands in solidarity with all transgender youth and their families," the organization stressed. "This measure may force families to leave the state, disrupting communities and other deep ties to Ohio's history and economy."
The ACLU of Ohio also noted Wednesday that "to make matters worse, Ohio is now considering adopting sweeping new rules that would restrict the care that Ohio providers can provide to all transgender patients of all ages."
"These proposed restrictions, if finalized, would make Ohio the most restrictive state in the country with respect to evidence-based healthcare, imposing disastrous burdens on providers untethered from any medical guidelines," the group warned. "Ohioans do not want government officials involved in private medical decisions, these matters should be reserved for parents, children, and doctors."
While DeWine won widespread praise for his veto, "late Friday, the governor announced a new executive order and a set of rules from the state's health department that could threaten access to gender-affirming care across the state, even for trans adults," MSNBC columnist Katelyn Burns, the first openly transgender Capitol Hill reporter, explained Wednesday.
"Trans people used to die from secretive, underground bottom surgeries, and health issues frequently popped up among those who got black-market hormones with self-prescribed dosages," Burns noted. "We must avoid returning to a world where trans people are forced to turn to dark-market providers for their lifesaving medical needs, and that means we must vigorously and vocally oppose DeWine's onerous government overreach into the private lives of trans people. The quality of transition care depends on it."
In addition to battling over gender-affirming healthcare and sports teams, Ohio Republicans are considering House Bill 183, which would prevent trans students at public K-12 schools and universities from using bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their identity.
During an Ohio House Higher Education Committee hearing for the bathroom bill on Wednesday, one of the sponsors, Rep. Beth Lear (R-61), used a Bible verse to justify the bill and suggested supporters of trans students should be executed.
"If I had a child who thought he was a bird, am I going to take him to a doctor who tells him the best thing to do is to let him explore being a bird?" Lear also said, according to The Enquirer. "And oh, by the way, there's a five-story building next door—why don't you jump off and see if you can fly?"
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio argued Wednesday that "trans people deserve equal accommodations. Going to the bathroom is a normal bodily function and trans people should be able to do so in the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity."
"Make no mistake—bathroom bills are part of a larger dehumanization campaign against the trans community," the group added. "There are so many other initiatives the Legislature could be focused on instead of perpetuating unnecessary surveillance and harm to the trans community."
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'Lives Will Be Saved': Ohio Gov. Vetoes Trans Youth Healthcare, Sports Bans
"Thank you to Gov. DeWine for listening to the people of his state and making the right decision for young trans Ohioans," said one advocate.
Dec 29, 2023
LGBTQ+ rights advocates on Friday praised Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine for vetoing a bill that would ban gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth and bar them from participating in school sports teams that match their identity.
"Ohio families don't want politicians meddling in decisions that should be between parents, their kids, and their doctors," said Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson in a statement.
"Instead, parents, schools, and doctors should all do everything they can to make all youth, including transgender youth, feel loved and accepted, and politicians should not be making it harder for them to do so," she added. "Thank you to Gov. DeWine for listening to the people of his state and making the right decision for young trans Ohioans."
Thanking DeWine on social media, ACLU of Ohio executive director J. Bennett Guess stressed that "lives will be saved because of this critically important veto!"
Also welcoming the veto, the Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers said: "This is the result of advocacy of trans folks and their families, providers, and advocates. Thank you all for taking action. Our advocacy action steps continue. Now we need to contact our Ohio legislators to urge them not to overturn the veto."
Some Republican state lawmakers expressed disappointment with the governor's decision and teased an override effort. The Associated Pressreported Friday that "GOP lawmakers hold enough seats to override DeWine's veto, but if or when they would do so was not immediately clear. Both within and between chambers, Republican legislators have not been in lockstep this year."
Several GOP-dominated states have recently moved to restrict gender-affirming care, especially for minors. In 2021, then-Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed a healthcare ban targeting youth. State lawmakers overrode his veto, but a federal judge struck down the law in June. Earlier this week, another judge blocked a similar law in Idaho.
As for athletics, two dozen states have enacted laws or regulations preventing students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, often targeting trans girls, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Some of those bans are currently blocked—including one in Utah, where Republican Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed the bill last year but state lawmakers swiftly overrode the veto. Cox notably signed a ban on gender-affirming care for youth earlier this year.
After the Ohio Legislature passed House Bill 68 earlier this month, Nick Lashutka, president and CEO of the Ohio Children's Hospital Association, pointed out that "we do not perform any surgeries on minors for the condition of gender dysphoria."
"If this bill becomes law," he warned, "it will be devastating to kids and their families who are already at their most vulnerable and will place an insurmountable barrier between patients and their medical professionals for often lifesaving care."
DeWine, who visited children's hospitals and spoke with families before announcing the veto, echoed medical professionals on Friday. As The Washington Postreported:
"This bill would impact a very small number of Ohio's children. But for those children who face gender dysphoria, the consequences of this bill could not be more profound. Ultimately I believe this is about protecting human life," DeWine said Friday during a news conference announcing the decision. "Many parents have told me that their child would not have survived, would be dead today, if they had not received the treatment they received from one of Ohio's children's hospitals."
"These are gut-wrenching decisions that should be made by parents and should be informed by teams of doctors who are advising them," DeWine continued. "Were I to sign House Bill 68, or 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 than the two people who love that child the most: the parents."
The Columbus Dispatch noted that DeWine "said his administration will draft rules to ban surgery for patients under 18, collect data on transgender medical care for adults and children, and restrict pop-up clinics that don't provide adequate mental health counseling."
While welcoming the veto as "crucial" and "extraordinary," trans activist and content creator Erin Reed also highlighted the caveats, saying that "the most concerning aspect of Gov. DeWine's announcement was the potential for increased scrutiny of transgender adults in Ohio."
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