Nearly 12 hours after they convened Wednesday, Ohio House Republicans tacked an anti-LGBTQ+ bill onto an unrelated bill to force a vote on language that did not go through the normal legislative process.
Rep. Adam Bird (R-New Richmond) proposed amending a bill updating the College Credit Plus Program (SB 104) to include HB 183, a bill to ban trans individuals in Ohio’s schools from using multi-person restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity.
Dubbed the “Protect All Students Act” — despite only addressing bathroom use — the bill applies to all of Ohio’s educational institutions, Kindergarten through college, both public and private. The bill would also ban all colleges from constructing, establishing or maintaining a multi-occupancy facility that is designated as “nongendered, multigendered, or open to all genders.”
The House passed the amended bill 60-31.
By amending a bill that originated in the Senate and had already been approved by that body, House Republicans circumvented the normal legislative process, in which HB 183 would have had to be heard through Senate Committee hearings. Now, the Senate needs only to concur with the amended SB 104 to send the bathroom bill on to Gov. Mike DeWine for approval.
It is not anticipated that the Senate will return until the fall.
‘This is a made-up problem and you are targeting children’
House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said that she had not planned to speak against the amendment but couldn’t sit quietly as Republicans circumvented the legislative process.
“No surprise, in the dark of night when most people have gone home and are not paying attention, we are passing the worst types of bills that this body is notorious for passing,” Russo said.
Russo then outlined issues that Ohio’s youth are facing, including poverty and food insecurity. She also challenged the testimony put forward by House Republicans that they were approached by superintendents asking for the bathroom bill.
“Don’t tell me your school districts are begging for this,” Russo said. “Baloney. They want to fill teacher positions.They want help affording bus services. They want help building safe learning environments. This is red meat. This doesn’t solve any problem at all. This is a made up problem and you are targeting children.”
Rep. Beth Liston (D-Dublin) said she, too, was not planning to speak but had not realized the legislative body would be “using the power of the state to bully transgender children and Ohioans.”
“We continue to focus on children’s genitals rather than their education, the original intent of [SB 104],” Liston said. “We should not be marginalizing children or adults who are different, and that’s what this bill does.”
Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery) used Democrats’ comments as an opportunity to attack the idea that trans children should be supported.
“The suicide rate is not because people reject them or discriminate against them,” Click said. “It’s because they’ve been lied to. We need to stop lying to our kids.”
Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania Township) said that he recently celebrated his 40th birthday and in his 40 years, he has learned three truths.
“One day I will die,” Williams said. “I will always pay taxes. And boys can never become girls. Therefore boys should not be in girls’ locker rooms.”
When the amended bill passed, Republicans applauded loudly.
LGBTQ+ equality groups were quick to respond.
“Across races, backgrounds, and genders, we all deserve the dignity of safely existing in public life and using the most basic of public accommodations. Today, we saw extremists in the General Assembly resort to eleventh-hour back door legislative efforts to ensure that transgender and gender expansive Ohioans are stripped of this fundamental decency,” Morgan Zickes, public policy manager at Equality Ohio, said in a statement. “This is the latest of their desperate efforts to advance a deeply unpopular and discriminatory agenda that Ohioans do not want or need. We will never stop defending transgender and gender expansive communities across our state.”