Trans care at stake as Ohio Republicans hope to revive restrictive bill

Ohio lawmakers will return to the statehouse on Wednesday as house Republicans attempt to revive HB 68, a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for trans youth.

The special session comes after Governor Mike DeWine surprised fellow Republicans by vetoing HB 68 late last month, a move celebrated by LGBTQ+ advocates and parents of transgender children in the state.

“I believe the parents, not the government, should be making these crucial decisions for their children,” the governor said.

But opponents of HB 68 were confused when, just one week later, the governor proposed unprecedented new restrictions on the rights of transgender adults.

“These rules are, in some ways, worse than the proposed statute,” said Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice at the ACLU. “This amounts to a de facto ban on trans care.”

The governor on Friday unveiled administrative rules that would “go well beyond” the scope of HB 68.

“I believe we can address a number of goals in House Bill 68 by administrative rules that will have a better chance of surviving judicial review and being adopted,” the governor said in his speech last month announcing his veto.

“I share the legislature’s concerns about clinics that may pop up and try to sell patients inadequate or even ideological treatments.”

Many advocates and parents of transgender children in Ohio, still heartened by DeWine’s decision to break from his party and veto HB 68, assumed that the rules proposal was a political maneuver to block the state’s Republican supermajority from sidestepping the governor.

“I’d like to give DeWine the benefit of the doubt, that he’s implementing these rules and proposals to try to appease Republicans and avert a veto override,” said Mallory Golski, civic