This piece was updated to add an explanation about the changes to the sections around driver’s licenses.
On Trans Day of Visibility, an Ohio Republican has introduced a new bill that would limit trans Ohioans’ access to public bathrooms and ban Ohioans from being able to change the sex marker on birth and death certificates.
House Bill (HB) 798 (“The Privacy Protection Act”) is sponsored by Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania Twp.), a lawmaker who has now introduced nearly 100 bills in this General Assembly as he runs for a spot in the US House of Representatives.
Williams has repeatedly made statements saying that it would be “harmful to society” to affirm trans identity.
HB 798 is a wide-ranging bill that includes:
Bathroom restrictions:
- Designate all public and government-owned multi-occupancy restrooms and changing rooms as single-sex, with exceptions for those accompanying someone under 10 or someone with a disability.
- Allow individuals to take legal action against whoever maintains the restrooms and changing rooms if they encounter someone who they perceive to be of the opposite sex.
- Allow students and employees in both K-12 and higher education to take legal action against school districts if the student encounters someone who they perceive to be of the opposite sex in a restroom or locker room.
- Allow the attorney general to take action against any proprietor of a public space for allowing violations of a single sex restroom facility, up to and including civil penalties.
Name and pronoun restrictions:
- Ban school and higher education employees from addressing a minor by a name other than their legal name (or a derivative) or using pronouns that don’t correspond to the minor’s “biological sex.”
- Prevent school, higher education and government employees and students from being disciplined for not identifying their pronouns or for misgendering or deadnaming trans students or employees.
Restrictions on sex markers on documentation:
- Mandate that all Ohio birth and death certificates have a sex marker listed on the documentation.
- Ban changing a sex marker on all marriage and divorce documents.
- Ban changing a sex marker on all birth certificates.
- Ban changing a sex marker on all death certificates.
- Language about “biological sex” was inserted twice into sections of the law pertaining to driver’s licenses. Although there is not explicitly a restriction, ban or change to sex markers on these licenses, the insertion of language on “biological sex” into this particular section should be noted.
Dara Adkison, executive director of TransOhio, notes that the timing of HB 798 on March 31, Trans Day of Visibility is “intentional to cause stress and emotional harm.”
“Visibility without protection is a threat; we know this,” said Adkison.
Adkison wants Ohioans to keep the perspective that “this bill isn’t real yet” as it hasn’t even been assigned to a committee.
“But we are real today and we will get through everything together,” they said.
Current Ohio law
Ohio’s stance on changing one’s gender marker on a birth certificate is inconsistent. In 2021, the Ohio Department of Health declined to appeal a federal court ruling that gave trans Ohioans the right to change their birth certificate’s gender marker.
The trans plaintiffs still sued the state because individual courts had inconsistent rulings – some judges allowed trans people to change their markers, some didn’t. After the same plaintiffs argued for a consistent policy, the Ohio Supreme Court gave a “non-decision” in 2021 that kept in place the state’s patchwork birth-certificate rulings.
If a birth certificate does not match a trans person’s gender, their death certificate is also likely to be incorrectly marked, according to an article from The19th. An incorrect death certificate would essentially erase a trans person’s history of their identity from existence.
A team of researchers in Portland, Oregon, who in 2022 quantified data of trans people who had died in the past decade had to rely on a medical examiner’s narrative of someone’s death in order to confirm their true gender. More than half were misgendered.
HB 798 would expand Ohio’s 2024 bathroom ban that currently applies only to kindergarten through college.
Adding perspective
Dwayne Steward, executive director of Equality Ohio, called HB 798 “a sweeping and obvious attack on transgender Ohioans.”
“In doing so, Rep. Williams has unwittingly advanced one of TDoV’s primary purposes: to raise awareness of the discrimination faced by transgender people every day,” Steward said.
Steward, too, wants Ohioans to remember that HB 798 is not a law and is unlikely to become law before the General Assembly ends its two-year session in December.
“In essence, this is a taxpayer-funded press release dressed up as a bill,” Steward said.
Finally, Steward highlighted that “almost none” of Williams’ bills have become law or have gone on to benefit the people of Northwest Ohio.
“During a time when people across Ohio face soaring electric bills, gas prices, grocery prices and housing costs, Williams has consistently pushed the envelope to show how someone can use the platform, prestige and public resources entrusted to Ohio’s would-be public servants to instead serve only self,” Steward said. 🔥
IGNITE ACTION
- To access The Buckeye Flame’s Ohio 2026 LGBTQ+ legislation guide, click here.
- To register to vote or to check your voter eligibility status in the state of Ohio, click here.
- To find contact information for your Ohio state representative, click here.
- To find contact information for your Ohio state senator, click here.
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