Judge Blocks Anti-LGBTQ+ Law in OH

On Tuesday an Ohio judge blocked the state’s ban on gender-affirming care from taking effect, after the ACLU of Ohio sued the state on behalf of two Trans minors and their families. House Bill 68, the “Saving Ohio Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) and Saving Women’s Sports Act,” both violates Ohio’s equal protection clause and a rule preventing laws from covering more than one subject. The bill would prevent LGBTQ+ children from accessing gender-affirming care including hormone blockers, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), certain mental health services, or participating in women’s school sports teams.

Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine vetoed the bill in December, moved by parents of Trans youth that shared their stories with him. “Parents have looked me in the eye and told me but for this treatment, their child would be dead,” he said, adding that affirming their gender allows Trans youth to thrive. He said he vetoed the bill because “ultimately, I believe this is about protecting human life.”
Republicans in the Ohio legislature overrode the veto and passed HB 68.

“There is little doubt as to the irreparable nature of the actual physical injury to plaintiffs upon the enforcement of the Act,” wrote Judge Michael J. Holbrook of the Franklin County, Ohio Court of Common Pleas. Holbrook, a Republican, issued the 15-page order granting a temporary restraining order which blocks the law from taking effect for at least two weeks, with an option to renew.

The ACLU also argued that the law violates Ohio’s “one-subject” rule. Article II, Section 15D of the Ohio Constitution reads “No bill shall contain more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title.” They argued that previous attempts to directly ban gender-affirming care failed, and lawmakers violated the law by attaching the provisions to a bill preventing Trans participation in women’s sports.

“It is not lost upon this Court that the General Assembly was unable to pass the SAFE portion of the Act separately, and it was only upon logrolling in the Saving Women’s Sports provisions that it was able to pass,” the order read, adding that the plaintiffs “have sufficiently demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on the merits on at least one of their claims. The very title of the Act references two subjects.”

Court Blocks Anti-LGBTQ+ Law in WV

Also on Tuesday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that West Virginia’s ban on Trans participation in sports violates the rights of a teen athlete under Title IX, the federal act banning sex-based discrimination in education, and therefore cannot be lawfully enforced. The case was filed by the ACLU of West Virginia and Lambda Legal on behalf of Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 13-year old Trans student and track athlete.

In his ruling, Judge Toby Heytens painted a very clear picture of how this law violates B.P.J.’s constitutional rights, explaining that she has been publicly living as a girl for more than five years, has legally changed her name, has a birth certificate issued by the State West Virginia that lists her sex as female, takes puberty blocking medication to prevent her body from experiencing male puberty, and takes estrogen hormone therapy that has allowed her to develop the physical characteristics of an adolescent female.

“Given these facts, offering B.P.J. a ‘choice’ between not participating in sports and participating only on boys teams is no real choice at all. The defendants cannot expect that B.P.J. will countermand her social transition, her medical treatment, and all the work she has done with her schools, teachers, and coaches for nearly half her life by introducing herself to teammates, coaches, and even opponents as a boy. The defendants do not dispute that doing so would directly contradict the treatment protocols for gender dysphoria. It also would expose B.P.J. to the same risk of unfair competition—and, in some sports, physical danger—from which the defendants claim to be shielding cisgender girls. By participating on boys teams, B.P.J. would be sharing the field with boys who are larger, stronger, and faster than her because of the elevated levels of circulating testosterone she lacks. The Act thus exposes B.P.J. to the very harms Title IX is meant to prevent by effectively ‘exclud[ing]’ her from ‘participation in’ all non-coed sports entirely.”

The Damage Being Done

The right-wing is intentionally abusing our legal system to inflict harm on, and generally antagonize, LGBTQ+ people. It’s not enough that these laws are losing their challenges. Of course they are! In the case of the Ohio law, the very title of the act violated the state’s Constitution!

Every one of these laws, and even all of the ones already defeated in the legislatures of kinder states, have already caused great harm to LGBTQ+ people, putting their sense of security at risk. Even further, these laws harm society as a whole by furthering false narratives, increasing societal tension, and giving credibility to bad-faith attacks, lies, and cynical rabble-rousing.

Trans youth, like all youth, deserve to grow up healthy, safe, and accepted for who they are.
It’s up to all of us, LGBTQ+ or not, whether we feel personally invested or not, to fight oppression and make society better. We all must fight to protect Trans youth.