The first hearing was held on Wednesday for HB 183, a bill to ban trans individuals from using restrooms and locker rooms in Ohio’s schools and colleges that correspond to their gender identity.
The bill would require that multi-person spaces be designated for use by individuals who are one “biological sex.”
The bill would also restrict schools from granting a trans student access to a bathroom that doesn’t correspond with the gender assigned to them at birth (proven via birth certificate), eliminating accommodations for trans students that school staff have arranged across the state.
Finally, the bill would prohibit “a member of the female biological sex to share overnight accommodation with a member of the male biological sex” and vice versa, seemingly in an attempt to address the sleeping arrangements of trans students during overnight field trips or athletic competitions.
Wednesday’s hearing solely featured testimony from the bill’s sponsors, Representatives Beth Lear (R-Galena) and Adam Bird (R-New Richmond)
Although the language of the bill addresses bathrooms and locker rooms, Lear immediately focused her comments on invalidating trans identity and villifying any individuals who support trans identity. In her 850 words of submitted testimony, she only mentioned bathrooms only once.
Below are 14 of the most memorable quotes from Wednesday’s hearing.
1. “We want to protect our children. A cursory search will lead to multiple examples of girls who have been assaulted in a restroom by a biological male who was allowed into the restroom.“
-Rep. Adam Bird (R-New Richmond), not acknowledging that (1) assault is already banned in the Ohio Revised Code, (2) HB 183 does not prevent assault from happening in the future and (3) there aren’t multiple (or any) examples of girls who have been assaulted in a restroom by other trans girls.
2. “In our country, since the Puritans and Pilgrims first arrived and until recently, we believed ‘God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.’ We also believed children were a heritage from the Lord. The role of the father was to protect, the mother to nurture and both to teach.”
-Rep. Beth Lear (R-Galena), quickly invoking the bible to justify…banning trans individuals from bathrooms.
3. “Children and young adults are known to be easily manipulated. Just think about the Youth in WWII Germany, the Chinese Red Guard and child soldiers in Africa. Children are more apt to act rashly, less likely, or able to be thoughtful and rely more on feelings than reality. The job of educators is to teach students to reason, not indulge their often irrational and unrealistic feelings.”
-Rep. Lear, comparing gender-affirming Ohio teachers to Nazis, communists and dictators.
4. “Kids are being encouraged to be confused instead of encouraged to be who they are.”
-Rep. Lear, again invoking the specter of nefarious educators.
5. “Adults…convince vulnerable children to destroy their young bodies with drugs and surgeries that will ensure they will not only be unable to procreate but most won’t even be able to engage in any meaningful physical relationships. The drugs destroy the bones as well as damage the brain and the surgeries added to that ensure sterility. Encouraging students to self-harm is absurd and exactly what is happening in too many of our schools and universities today.”
-Rep. Lear, not once mentioning bathrooms.
6. “Public schools [have to] open up their restrooms in K-12. They can’t discriminate based on age. They’re going to have to let adults in too.”
-Rep. Lear, saying that men will be allowed to walk in off the street into a public school bathroom, which both isn’t happening and wouldn’t be prevented by this bill.
7. “It’s incumbent upon school leaders–whether they are K-12 or higher ed leaders–to know what everyone’s birth certificate says. It’s important that school leaders know who is a boy and who is a girl based on their birth certificate.”
-Rep. Bird, on duties that are very much not the current function of school leaders.
8. “I believe the sexual revolution and its father Alfred C. Kinsey are to blame. Many of our so-called modern ideas come from Kinsey. He was a depraved monster…The leftists and ACLU use his research continue to weaken our laws against pornography, rape and child molestation.”
-Rep. Lear, answering the stunningly vague question of “How did we get here?” posed by Rep. Bernard Willis (R-Springfield).
9. “This to me doesn’t sound like [bathrooms] are the issue. It sounds like the issue is, “We don’t believe that trans people have rights in this state.”
-Rep. Joe Miller (D-Lorain).
10. “This legislation doesn’t refer to anything with regards to state or federal law with regards to transgender.”
-Chair Tom Young (R-Washington Twp), ignoring that Rep. Lear’s entire opening statement and answers to her colleagues regarding the “need” for HB 183 were focused on invalidating trans identity
11. “There was a time when being a Black person going into a bathroom, you could not go in. Some of the rationale that I have heard today mirrors the rationale used in the Jim Crow era: fear of assault, fear of being harmed and hurt, fear of being exposed. That unfortunately led to policies that discriminated against people like me based on my race. I sit here today in a saddened position because getting into this [legislative] body was for me about ensuring that we are building equity for all people and this particular legislation breeds discrimination.”
–Rep. Dontavius Jarrells (D-Columbus), on the scare tactic rationales presented by Lear and Bird
12. “There’s no funding in this bill.”
-Rep. Bird, acknowledging that there is no financial support for schools that don’t currently have single use bathrooms, the solution Bird and Lear repeatedly offered for trans students.
13. “Young men are vulnerable because they are visual. They don’t need young women coming into their locker rooms and bathrooms, using them and presenting all of their parts. Pornography is an epidemic in our country. This is contributing to that.”
-Rep. Lear.
14. “I don’t know how we got to pornography there…”
-Rep. Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) 🔥
Ignite Action
- Contact the members of the Higher Education committee to make your views known on HB 183.
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