Embedded in the 141,765-line budget passed by the Ohio House passed last week are two lines that are easy to miss:
“No government entity shall place menstrual products in the men’s restroom of a public building.”
The 15 words are the latest anti-trans crusade of Rep. Rodney Creech (R-West Alexandria), a lawn-care business owner living on his family farm and currently serving his third term in the House.
In February, Creech took to social media to say that he had received “several calls and texts” from constituents alerting him to a feminine-product dispenser in a men’s room in the Dayton Public Library.
Needing to “stop and look for himself,” Creech visited the library and proceeded to take pictures from inside the men’s room.
“I called the Dayton Metro Library and shared my concerns along with those from the community,” Creech wrote in his Facebook post. “I am scheduling a meeting with them next week to get these dispensers removed from the Men’s room.”
Library officials told the Dayton Daily News that they met with Creech and would welcome further dialogue with him, but that their library would continue to provide hygiene products in their restrooms.
Dissatisfied with that outcome, Creech decided to take action and on a bigger scale. Creech submitted an amendment to the state’s two-year budget banning all public men’s restrooms in Ohio from having menstrual products.
“Thank you to House leadership for adding my amendment to our budget bill,” Creech posted on social media on Saturday.
Many non-budgetary items were inserted into the proposed budget, including language declaring there are only male and female sexes, a ban on LGBTQ+ library books being available to persons under 18 and a withholding of state money from youth shelters that support transgender youth.
The budget now heads to the Ohio Senate for approval.
“I will be working closely with the Senate to see that [this language] stays in,” Creech wrote.
Creech is also the co-sponsor of a bill targeting transgender candidates that would allow Ohioans registered under any political party to challenge the legitimacy of a candidate on the premise they fail to publicly list their former legal names. Creech defeated Bobbie Arnold, a transgender candidate, in the 2024 election.
Arnold said that Creech’s thinking on menstrual products is shortsighted.
“There are a number of people that benefit from [these products] being [in men’s rooms] including fathers with daughters who may need them, cis women who go into men’s restrooms when the lines are long for the women’s, or possibly a husband who has to help his disabled wife,” Arnold said.
Ultimately, Arnold said, no matter why menstrual products are present in men’s rooms, everyone deserves the “same dignity as everyone else.”
“Please tell me, who do they harm?” Arnold asked. “Why is it such an important issue to Rodney?” 🔥
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- The Buckeye Flame’s Ohio LGBTQ+ legislation guide for 2025-26 can be found here.
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