An Ohio lawmaker claimed ‘parental alienation’ denying accusations of sexual misconduct with a minor [COMMENTARY]

By Marilou Johanek

Nine months ago, Ohio Republican state Rep. Rodney Creech was a pariah in Columbus.

Old allegations of gross sexual misconduct with a minor female relative had resurfaced and the Preble County Republican was kicked off his committee posts and urged to resign by House Speaker Matt Huffman.

Creech denied wrongdoing and, after a reported state criminal investigation, was not charged in the case.

“Like President Trump,” he said in a 2025 statement, “I am no stranger to false media attacks.”

Last week, the southwest Ohio lawmaker was quietly reinstated to four committees, launched his reelection bid for a fourth term in the Ohio House, and was officially endorsed by the Ohio Republican Party. 

But in a Facebook post, Creech referenced a widely discredited theory — frequently raised in family courts to rebut, obscure, and distract from allegations of child abuse in custody disputes — to dispel allegations made against him by a minor teenage family member as “just textbook parental alienation.”

The psychological concept of parental alienation syndrome — rejected by most mental health professionals including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the World Health Organization — frames allegations of child abuse made against a parent as a willful attempt of one parent to alienate a malleable minor from the other parent.

It recasts alleged abuse against a child as a lie weaponized against a parent in contested custody cases. 

Creech posted “signs and symptoms” of parental alienation syndrome on his official page (no longer there) and said his accuser was “just trying to make me look bad.”

Not long after the House Republican cited “parental alienation” against accusations of inappropriately touching a minor and climbing into the minor’s bed with an erection, according to Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation records, the same term appeared in the latest anti-trans legislation introduced by two other state Republican legislators.

Ohio House Bill 693, sponsored by Reps. Gary Click and Josh Williams, would shield parents from abuse or neglect investigations initiated solely on their refusal to recognize a child’s preferred gender identity — a right-wing media allegation the lawmakers mentioned that is vigorously disputed by children service agency officials.   

But set aside the ridiculous premise of Ohio House Bill 693 that overworked and understaffed workers in child protective services and custody courts have it out for parents who do not affirm the preferred name, pronouns, or medical care of a child who identifies as transgender.

The legislation is a partisan construct indifferent to fact.

Click and Williams, two GOP pillars of mediocrity in the General Assembly with malice toward all things trans, presented a made-for-the-midterms measure blessed by religious right lobbyists from the Heritage Foundation and the Center for Christian Virtue. 

Click, a Sandusky County Republican and retired pastor, has a track record of exploiting young transgender Ohioans to get a rise out of a MAGA base primed to fear and hate what it does not understand.

He was the main sponsor of Ohio House Bill 68 in 2024 that overrode a governor veto to enact a ban on transgender health care for Ohio youth, which included hormone therapy and puberty blockers, and blocked trans athletes from participating in women’s sports.

So why not propose another anti-trans bill before the November election to toss more red meat to extremists at the expense of vulnerable kids? 

Click’s “Affirming Families First” legislation affirms the parental right to ignore gender dysphoria as a psychological condition, potentially reverses local bans on conversion therapy, described as “a hateful, misleading, and dangerous practice discredited by over 28 major medical organizations,” and possibly increases the risks of child neglect and abuse in an already marginalized and ostracized demographic targeted for bullying and worse.

But the retired pastor preached about protecting the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit and brushed aside concerns about protecting the rights of children who may face significant backlash or abuse at home because of how they identify.

“Abuse is abuse,” shrugged Click. 

Co-sponsor Williams, who is keen to position himself to the right of extreme in a packed GOP primary race for Ohio’s 9th congressional district, insisted Ohio House Bill 693 was about curbing government overreach and protecting parents from punishment just for “raising their children consistent with biological reality.”

Besides, said the Sylvania Township Republican, “affirming biological sex is not abuse, neglect or contrary to a child’s best interest.”

But might such a blanket assertion, wrapped around the moral certainty of parents-know-best legislation, shield child abusers from investigation under cover of ideological immunity?

And was “parental alienation” added to the anti-trans bill as justification to prioritize the rights of parents over the rights of trans children with credible allegations of abuse? 

Ohio House Bill 693 would write a legal definition of parental alienation pseudo science into Ohio law as “a mental and emotional state in which, without valid reason, a minor child rejects a fit parent, guardian, or legal custodian or allies strongly with another parent or an individual or group of individuals who do not have legal custody or control of the minor, sometimes referred to as ‘chosen family.’”

Presumably, that would mean association with any outside support network could be used as evidence of parental alienation to discredit whatever survivors of abuse allege in custody or child welfare proceedings. 

Interesting that parental alienation has found new political cachet as both defense against salacious accusations that make a lawmaker look bad and transphobic legislation dressed up as parents’ rights.  🔥