Ohio’s Republican legislators are harming our kids with their transphobic laws: Leslie

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Republican members of the Ohio House are bullying our LGBTQ+ youth and their parents, physicians, and teachers.

Proposed House Bills 61, 327, and 454 aim to strip trans youths’ rights to join high school sports teams, all students’ right to learn about racism and gender diversity, and outlaw gender affirming health care, in that order. If I were raising children today, I would be outraged. Wait – never mind – I’m done raising kids, and I’m still outraged.

I decided to join an Equality Ohio online session last week to learn more about these bills and how to write and give testimony against them. It’s the one thing any human can do – speak up. Equality Ohio, the statewide organization dedicated to making Ohio a place where all LGBTQ+ people are affirmed and their rights protected, works the frontlines whenever the LGBTQ+ community is threatened.

Gwen Stembridge, director of Strategic Partnerships, opened the training by describing how giving testimony can feel legally binding, but it’s not. It’s simply a statement of support or opposition to a regulation or law.

“It’s the voice of the people – an act of civic engagement,” she said and added that the public needs to hear these testimonies to understand how proposed laws could impact people’s lives. I wish our Ohio government would publicly post all the emails, notes and videos received on draft legislation – that’s the kind of transparency we need.

When asked to share personal experiences with giving testimony, a fellow participant and genderqueer Olentangy High School student, Parker Parker, talked about a recent Youth in Government club project where students practiced law creation and testimonial defense. Parker said they will be putting those skills to work next week at their local school board meeting, protesting their school’s current transphobic pronoun policy. The policy prevents teachers from directly asking students for their preferred pronouns, thus erasing students’ identities daily in the classroom. (Parker Parker’s presentation to their school board was successful and they now have a meeting with the superintendent. Bravo, Parker!)

Maria Bruno, Legislative Policy Director, reviewed the most threatening legislature for attendees at the the online session. She described how HB 61 prohibits female-identifying trans youth from participating in girls’ high school sports even though the OHSAA (Ohio High School Athletics Association) has already protected their right to join the girls’ school teams.

Bruno noted how HB 327 is aimed at “erasing LGBTQ+ people from history and whitewashing important discussions about race” – essentially a gag order on classroom discussions that makes compliance with Title IX protections impossible. Not only does it silence needed dialogue, but it also forces school employees to out queer students to their parents, whether they’re ready or not, whether they’re safe or not.

Lastly, we heard about HB 454. I decided to read up on this bill since it was sponsored by Representative Diane Grendell, from Geauga County (my old stomping ground), and Representative Gary Click, from the Fremont area. They named their bill “The ‘Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act’.” Yes. Experimentation. Supportive parents are hereby accused of conducting unlawful experimentation if they engage health professionals to provide gender affirming care – and those doctors are subject to lawsuits if they even hint at treatment.

Here’s some of Grendell and Click’s reasons for outlawing trans care for youth. These comments are abbreviated by me, and countered by me. It is my column, after all.

1. “…the medical profession has stated that gender affirming treatment is ill-advised and can cause physical, emotional, and psychological harm.”

I’m playing the Nope card here. In 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a very clear statement in support of gender affirming care. The organization said, “…Transgender youth should have access to comprehensive, gender-affirming, and developmentally appropriate health care that is provided in a safe and inclusive clinical space.”

2. “Only a tiny percentage of the American population experiences distress at identifying with their biological sex.”

What’s tiny? Yes, it’s a minority, but it’s a growing minority, now measured at up to 4.1% of adolescents in a 2019 study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.  If my kid were one of the four children in a hundred who suffered, the minority would instantly become the priority.

3. “Studies [unidentified] consistently demonstrate that the vast majority of children who are gender non-conforming or experience distress at identifying with their biological sex come to identify with their biological sex in adolescence or adulthood, thereby rendering most medical, health care interventions unnecessary…”

No, it’s not just a phase. It’s so real that 42% of transgender and nonbinary youth attempted suicide in 2020 due to the emotional and mental toll of dysphoria and unsupported trans identification, according to The Trevor Project National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health 2021 report. By the way, Parker is on the right track – the survey also reveals the power of pronouns: “Transgender and nonbinary youth who reported having pronouns respected by all of the people they lived with attempted suicide at half the rate of those who did not have their pronouns respected by anyone with whom they lived.”

HB 454 goes on to list the intimate surgeries that can be part of gender affirmation treatment. I’m forced to think they included procedures such as penectomy, clitoroplasty, vaginectomy, scrotoplasty, and testicular prostheses for shock value. While it was a good vocabulary lesson, listing medical procedures created for many purposes including reconstruction after traumatic injury, resolution of ambiguous genitalia, and correction of birth defects is glaringly gratuitous.

On Friday, queer students across the country walked out of their schools in protest of these and other anti-LGBTQ+ laws and proposed legislation attacking trans youth being pushed by Republican lawmakers in Texas, Florida, Idaho, North Dakota, Kentucky, and yes, Ohio.

Enough already, legislators. Go pick on someone your own size, and leave our kids alone.

If you’d like to help stop these legislative attacks, you can engage with Equality Ohio’s action plan here: linktr.ee/equalityohio or participate in the #OhioCanPlay campaign at https://equalityohio.org/get-involved/ohio-can-play/

Here’s the list of state representatives who want to prohibit affirming healthcare for transgender children at https://legiscan.com/OH/bill/HB454/2021).

Leslie Kouba, a lifetime resident of Northeast Ohio and mother of four completely grown humans, enjoys writing, laughing, and living in Cleveland with her wife, five cats, and a fat-tailed gecko named Zennis. You can reach her at [email protected].