OAN’s Brooke Mallory
5:14 PM – Wednesday, January 24, 2024
On Wednesday, the Ohio Senate overrode Republican Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill that would have prohibited biological men and boys who identify as transgender women and girls from participating on female school sports teams. It also prohibited “gender-affirming medical treatments” for minors.
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The vote was 23-to-9. Now, the measure will take effect in 90 days.
After the state House voted to overrule the veto transpired earlier this month, Ohio has now joined almost two dozen other GOP-led states that have adopted laws of a similar nature.
However, during public hearings last year, hundreds of opponents, including the president of Ohio’s Children’s Hospital Association, spoke against House Law 68. LGBTQ groups, medical professionals, and families of transgender children have generally denounced the law.
GOP Senator Nathan Manning (R-Ohio) from North Ridgeville, Ohio, was the only member of the GOP to vote against the override, with twenty-four Republicans supporting it.
“Despite what the liberals say, gender is not assigned at birth, but rather from the moment of conception, you are either male or you are female,” Senator Kristina Roegner (R-Ohio). “There is no such thing as gender-affirming care. You can’t affirm something that doesn’t exist.”
On December 29th, DeWine vetoed House Bill 68, telling reporters at a news conference that if the bill were to become law, it would cause “more harm than benefit.”
“Ultimately, I believe this is about protecting human life,” DeWine 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.”
Nonetheless, it was revealed by The Federalist Papers outlet that DeWine has received a number of large donations from hospitals that specialize in or offer transgender medical treatments and surgery.
“A review of donations from 2018 to 2023 reveals that the governor received a total of $40,300 from the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association (OCHA), Cincinnati Children’s, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and ProMedica Children’s Hospital. The OCHA donated $10,000 to the Mike DeWine and Jon Husted Transition Fund on December 28, 2018, and another $10,000 on December 7, 2022, according to the report. This transition fund allows candidates to spend donations for “transition activities and inaugural celebrations,” as outlined in Ohio’s campaign finance handbook. Affiliates of OCHA, such as Cincinnati Children’s and ProMedica, also made significant contributions. Cincinnati Children’s donated $300 on Dec. 15, 2022, and ProMedica, another affiliate of OCHA, donated $10,000 in December 2018. Nationwide Children’s, a third affiliate with OCHA, donated $5,000 in December 2018 and another $5,000 in January 2023 to the transition fund,” The Federalist reported.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Nationwide Children’s Hospital provide “gender-affirming” treatments, such as cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers, and reportedly do not have explicit age restrictions for their patients.
However, in a news conference on December 29th, DeWine claimed that it is “frankly, a fallacy” that such medical procedures are being carried out on children in Ohio.
During a statement, OCHA President Nick Lashutka heavily criticized House Bill 68, saying that it “strips away” the “rights of parents and their transgender children.”
All major medical organizations consider “gender-affirming healthcare” for transgender adults and minors to be “medically necessary,” even if not all trans people choose to transition medically or have access to treatment.
DeWine is the second Republican governor to veto legislation that would have outlawed transgender medical procedures. The first was Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, a failed 2024 presidential contender.
DeWine has also refrained from making any comment or expressing his support for the bill’s prohibitions on transgender student-athletes. However, he did express his opinion that these issues are “best addressed outside of government” in a statement from 2021.
Only three Republican governors, including DeWine, have vetoed legislation that prevents transgender athletes from participating on school sports teams that correspond to whatever gender they wish to identify as. Nonetheless, many parents of female athletes and the female athletes themselves have argued that by allowing transgender girls, who have a clear physical advantage in athletics since they are biological men, to compete with biological women, we are taking collegiate scholarships and opportunities away from “real women” in an attempt to uplift gender dysphoric men.
LGBTQ rights organizations and medical professionals have consistently criticized the new laws, claiming that they will make Ohio one of the “most restrictive states in the U.S. for gender-affirming healthcare.” The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Ohio also said in a joint statement that the regulations may essentially represent a “de facto ban” on care.
According to sciencedirect.com, “the term ‘gender dysphoria syndrome’ was [first] proposed in 1973, which includes transsexualism in addition to other gender identity disorders….” However, from 2012-2013, “the American Psychiatric Association revised its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and it 1706145359 no longer lists being transgender as a mental disorder,” according to The National Institute of Corrections.
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