Gov. Mike DeWine speaks during a June 28 news conference during which he ceremonially signed the multi-billion dollar capital budget bill that lawmakers passed earlier in the week.
Tribune News Service
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine said Friday that he would sign a bill Republican lawmakers passed earlier this week that bans K-12 schools and public universities from allowing transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identities – if he’s given the opportunity.
DeWine described his position as being “for children being able to go to a bathroom that has that gender assignment.” He also said his position only applies to the current version of the bill.
“I looked at the language in this particular bill as it stands now,” DeWine said. “As it stands now, I would sign that bill.”
Republicans in the Ohio House approved the bill containing the transgender bathroom ban earlier this week during a late-night session before a four-month summer break, amending the change into a bill that otherwise deals with high school students’ ability to receive college credit. The transgender language also applies to locker rooms and shower rooms, and it bans schools from constructing gender-neutral bathrooms for use by more than one person, although it specifies the language does not apply to family bathrooms.
The amendment Wednesday passed on a 59-32 vote, with only Republicans in support. The bill now heads to the Ohio Senate, although the chamber is not scheduled to meet again until after the November election.
If the bill passes the Senate, it then would go to DeWine’s desk for his signature.
Should the bill become law, it would follow another passed by the current general assembly that prohibits transgender athletes from playing women’s high school or collegiate sports or physicians from providing certain gender affirming care to transgender children. A Franklin County judge blocked that law earlier this year as a lawsuit challenging it awaits trial. The U.S. Supreme Court also has agreed to hear a challenge to a similar Tennessee law regarding transgender care for minors that could have implications in Ohio. DeWine had vetoed the bill banning gender affirming care for minors, but lawmakers voted to override his decision.
Republicans backers of the bill said during the late-night House session that it was needed to “protect” students. Democrats, however, characterized it as government intrusion that could apply not just to children but adults on college campuses.
