Two hearings were held this week for the “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” legislation that will force teachers and school staff to out LGBTQ+ youth to their parents and will limit the mention of LGBTQ+ identity in school curricula.
HB 8 was one of the first eight bills introduced by Republicans in 2023, establishing it as one of their top priorities for this two-year legislative term.
The bill requires that teachers and school staff – including school social workers, counselors and psychologists – notify a student’s parent of “any change in the student’s services, including counseling services, or monitoring related to the student’s mental, emotional or physical health or well-being.”
The legislation specifically calls out trans identity as necessitating parental notification and previous testimony has affirmed that disclosures of sexual orientation would also trigger parental contact.
The bill further bans any mention of “sexuality content” in grades K-3 and mandates that such content be “age-appropriate” for all other grades. Sexuality content is defined in the bill as “written instruction, presentation, image, or description of sexual concepts or gender ideology.” Nowhere in the bill is “gender ideology” defined.
The bill was amended on Tuesday to include a directive that all schools must develop a policy with regards to release time for religious instruction.
With a dozen hearings in House and Senate committees since its introduction nearly two years ago, opponents of the bill have submitted hundreds of pieces of testimony, outnumbering supporters of the bill by a margin of over 100 to 1.
The bill has been labeled by LGBTQ+ advocates as the “Unsafe Students Act,” a “Don’t Say Gay/Trans Bill” and an endangerment to all LGBTQ+ youth in Ohio public schools.
Opponents have included the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), who have repeatedly testified that HB 8 violates their professional guidelines and all tenants of a healthy therapeutic process by violating students’ “right and desires to privacy.”
Republican lawmakers seem not to be swayed by these arguments.
And now…religious instruction
The bill was heard twice this week in the Senate Education committee.
On Tuesday, the bill was amended to include language mandating that all school districts have a policy on release time on religious instruction (RTRI). Across the state, local school boards have struggled with how to navigate the advancements of Lifewise Academy, an organization that coordinates the removal of students during the school day to attend Bible classes. Lifewise’s curriculum specifically states that LGBTQ+ identity is a sin and “all sin angers [God] and makes Him sad.”
The Senate Education Committee’s amendment will force all schools to wrestle with what education experts have described as the incredible disruption of students leaving in the middle of the day to receive this instruction.
Sen. Catherine Ingram (D-Cincinnati), who served many years on the Cincinnati school board, proposed nearly a dozen amendments to the RTRI language that Republican leadership ignored: everything from requiring criminal background checks of those transporting children during the school day to language that aimed to limit when this religious instruction can take place.
For over twenty minutes, Chair Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware) immediately swatted away every one of Sen. Ingram’s amendments, either dismissing them as “unnecessary” or not even acknowledging them. In a clearly pre-orchestrated process, Brenner handed each amendment over to Vice Chair Sandra O’Brien (R-Ashtabula) to table Ingram’s motions, effectively denying any debate on any of Ingram’s proposals.
“Do you have any more amendments?” Brenner asked Ingram after he had summarily dismissed all of her concerns.
“I should,” Ingram replied without hesitation, blatantly ignoring the futility of proposing language that Brenner would clearly never allow to be discussed. Her response elicited laughter from the gallery.
“Ok, that’s kind of funny,” Brenner said.
Teachers speak out
Prior to the hearing, 177 Ohioans submitted testimony, with one individual arguing in favor of HB 8 and the remaining 176 opposing the bill.
Those testifying before the committee on Tuesday expressed weariness and frustration at having to repeatedly stand before legislators to express their concerns with their words having little to no effect on Republicans’ votes.
“This is now the fourth time I’ve testified against legislation like this,” said Dara Adkison, executive director of TransOhio. “Each time, I’ve hoped lawmakers would recognize the real-life harm impact these policies have on families and choose a path of inclusion and fairness. Yet, here we are again, debating another bill that fosters division, otherization and marginalization instead of addressing the actual needs of Ohio’s students and families.”
Liam Strausbaugh, a licensed social worker and employee of the Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), testified that the organization has tried repeatedly to work with legislators to find compromises to improve the bill, but that some committee members refused to meet to discuss possible amendments to address educator workforce strain, violations of Ohio Administrative Code, redundancy of Ohio Revised Code, violations of new Title IX regulations and detriment to youth mental health.
“As we are here again today, these concerns don’t seem to be enough to sway any of you away from this harmful bill,” Strausbaugh said.
Tuesday’s testimony also featured several Ohio’s public school teachers speaking out on how HB 8 would affect the relationship between students and teachers.
Brandi Braker explained that she has dedicated her life to supporting students, which informed her decision to oppose HB 8.
“As a highly educated professional in my field, with multiple degrees and licenses, I would sooner leave the field of education than to knowingly share information on one of my students that would cause them to be unsafe in their own home,” Braker said.
Tanasia Morton detailed how students come into her office every day to talk about their personal lives, as they see school as a safe space where they can be themselves, receive meals and receive quality education from teachers who care about them.
“If House Bill 8 is passed, queer students will lose their safe space,” Morton said. “House Bill 8 will only add to the teacher shortage we face in Ohio.”
Mallory Golski of Kaleidoscope Youth Center noted the irony of the amendment to pave the way to allowing religious instruction during school time in a bill that also suggests that learning opportunities are being compromised by the mention of LGBTQ+ identity in the curriculum.
“Effectively censoring opportunities to learn about experiences of people who are different than they are while in the same breath promoting opportunities for students to leave class to receive religious instruction is deeply contradictory,” Golski.
Although it was anticipated that the Senate Education Committee was going to vote the bill out of committee at a meeting on Wednesday, they adjourned before doing so.
The Ohio legislature only has a few weeks left of lame duck session: the period at the end of a two-year legislative cycle when lawmakers rush to introduce and pass as many bills as possible. Bills not passed by the end of 2024 will have to restart the legislative process over in the next legislative session. 🔥
Know an LGBTQ+ Ohio story we should cover? TELL US!
Submit a story!
