A third 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.
This third hearing in the Higher Education Committee was proponent testimony: those testifying in support of the bill.
The three hours of testimony featured nearly every transphobic trope in the conservative playbook, from deadnaming to using outdated language to rampant fear-mongering. Trans Ohioans were repeatedly equated with voyeurs, predators and rapists.
Multiple witnesses based the entirety of their testimony on the case of a trans woman using the women’s locker rooms at the Xenia YMCA, despite the fact that HB 183 would have no jurisdiction over these spaces.
Below are 15 of the most memorable quotes from Wednesday’s hearing.
1. “Parents across America are reporting tens of thousands of incidents where their girls are so traumatized that, at the very least, they are avoiding the bathrooms, locker rooms and playing sports.”
-Kelly Kohls, National School Boards Leadership Council and Moms for America, kicking off the hearing by testifying about “tens of thousands of incidents” without evidence of “tens of thousands of incidents.”
2. “When I went to college, they had dorms that were just for men or just for women. My understanding is now that they have floors where men are on the same floor as women. Adults are making the choice to live on the same floor as someone of the opposite sex.”
-Rep. Gayle Manning (R-North Ridgeville), Vice-Chair of this Higher Education Committee, highlighting that students who attend institutions of higher education are actual adults who are allowed to make actual choices.
3. “I would think students would have been traumatized by having to share these spaces. Women need to understand that they walk this earth as prey.”
-Kohls, responding to college students choosing to live on an all-gender floor in a college dorm
4. “I don’t see any women wanting to break down the doors of the men’s restrooms or locker rooms. Why is it always men who want to go into the women’s restroom? I know the answer to that because I’m a man. It’s obvious what’s happening. Because they’re a bunch of perverts.”
-Rep Bill Dean (R-Xenia), who was ruled out of order by Chair Tom Young (R-Washington Twp) for this bizarre/creepy/nonsensical (take your pick) statement.
5. “Why do you see trans youth as a distraction or a difficult situation? These trans youth are children. Where is the idea, the belief in your mind that all children—all children—deserve to be treated fairly, that all children are not a distraction, that all children are going to have different needs and it is up to us to provide that. Do your beliefs differ in that?”
–Rep. Joe Miller (D-Lorain), to Brendan Shea, State Board of Education for District 5, author of an anti-trans resolution that derailed five different meetings of the Ohio State Board of Education in 2022.
6. “How are we going to police higher ed when it comes to boys or girls? Do we check birth certificates? We had testimony from two people specifically last week and the one, Dion, I had asked him privately what his birth certificate said and it said he was [assigned] female. I had no way of knowing until he told us that he was transgender. Going forward in college especially where they could have surgeries, how will [this bill] affect higher ed?”
-Rep. Manning, asking a question that was repeatedly asked about how HB 183 could be enforced on a college campus. No concrete answers were provided.
7. “It is the proponents of policies that allow biological boys in girls restrooms and locker rooms who assign bigotry, and hatred to those of us who recognize the stark, biological differences and mindset between boys and girls, and men and women in an attempt to shame us for ignoring the “dignity” of transgenders.”
-Darbi Boddy, the censured Lakota Board of Education member, speaking about transgender students. In the October 4 hearing, Chair Young said, “This legislation doesn’t refer to anything with regards to state or federal law with regards to transgender.”
8. “Protection of the rights of a trans student should not endanger the rights of the majority.”
-Kara Ayers, Proponent. In the October 4 hearing, Chair Young said, “This legislation doesn’t refer to anything with regards to state or federal law with regards to transgender.”
9. “The same argument for why we should segregate [in HB 183] was used on why we should segregate by race. The same arguments: fear of attacks, fear for their lives, all if you mixed Black people and white people.”
-Rep. Miller, on the historical significance of the scare tactics that were used throughout the hearing
10. “At the college level, transgender college students are victims of sexual assault at approximately the same rates as cisgender students. Do you know who the perpetrators of these attacks are? 100% of them are cisgender men. The issue here is more about the attacking of women rather than focusing on the behavior of [transgender] students.”
–Rep. Mary Lightbody (D-Westerville)
11. “Once again, this is YMCA. This has nothing to do with higher education. I’m not sure why we keep using this example.”
-Rep. Miller, on the repeated invocation of the Xenia YMCA case. He said this quote before three more witnesses stepped up to base their entire testimony on that case.
12. “I did bring in several biology books to the first hearing.”
-Rep. Beth Lear (R-Galena), co-sponsor of HB 183, on her expertise understanding intersex identity.
13. “I respect transgender individuals for the choices they are making, which are not easy to make and which they are making not because of a whim or a fantasy, but because of a deep understanding of who they are.”
-Rep. Lightbody
14. “This bill will allow districts to make decisions on how to best support each of their students. HB 183 provides me the opportunity to have local control to make a decision in the best interest of everyone.”
-Michael L. Pohlman, Marion Local superintendent, about HB 183, which he said would give schools the ability to meet with families, something that is not prohibited right now. Additionally, HB 183 would very much not allow districts to make these decisions locally as state law would supersede local control.
15. “We want [transgender individuals] to live the best queer life they can live. We just don’t want them in our spaces. And I do have transgender friends.”
-Lalanna Spencer, proponent 🔥
Ignite Action
- Contact the members of the Higher Education Committee to make your views known on HB 183.
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