Anti-Transgender Bills Filed In Ohio, 27 Other States This Year

COLUMBUS, OH — Laws that restrict the rights of young transgender people have been proposed, and in some cases passed, in several states in 2021.

In Ohio, House Bill 61 and Senate Bill 132 would prohibit transgender athletes from participating in female sports. HB 61 was introduced state Rep. Jena Powell, Republican from Arcanum, and state Rep. Reggie Stoltzfus, Republican from Hartville. Senate Bill 132 would effect the same changes as House Bill 61 and was introduced by state Sen. Kristina Roegner, Republican from Akron.

The House legislation is currently being discussed in the Ohio House's Primary and Secondary Education committee, while SB 132 has been assigned to the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee. The General Assembly's analysis of the legislation can be found online.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) has already issued framework for how transgender athletes can participate in school sports. The organization has specific rules for both transgender females and males.

A bill in Arkansas passed the state’s Senate last week that would ban access to gender-affirming care for transgender minors. The only roadblock the bill has is the signature of Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, so the state could become the first to enact such a ban.

Hutchinson signed a separate anti-transgender bill banning transgender girls and women from participating in women’s sports on March 25.

The “Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act,” the bill still awaiting Hutchinson’s signature, would ban gender transition “procedures” and “cross-hormone therapy” for anyone under 18.

It is “the single most extreme anti-trans law to ever pass through a state legislature,” Chase Strangio, the ACLU’s transgender justice deputy director, said, according to NBC News.

Proposed laws restricting the rights of transgender people have become more frequent in recent years, activists have noted. Lawmakers in 28 states have proposed some form of legislation aimed at transgender people this year alone, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Most of the state bills introduced this year target either young transgender people’s access to health care, like the one in Arkansas, and participation in youth sports.

On the health care issue, some have said they want to make sure kids are mature enough to make these decisions.

Arkansas State Rep. Robin Lundstrom, who introduced the state’s act banning gender-affirming care among minors, said people can “choose” to be transgender when they are older, but “when they’re under, 18, they need to grow up first.”

“That’s a big decision, there’s no going back,” she said during a House panel meeting before the bill was passed.

The anti-transgender bills “target transgender and nonbinary people for discrimination,” the ACLU said in a statement.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem used executive orders to restrict transgender athletes’ participation in sports. The orders limit participation in women’s and girls’ sports to people assigned female at birth, NPR reported.

“Only girls should play girls’ sports,” Noem tweeted this week.

Hutchinson said the “Fairness in Sports Act” in Arkansas “will help promote and maintain fairness in women’s sporting events” in a statement.

• See Also: Why This Transgender Woman Made The Change After 70

Similar bills in Tennessee and Mississippi have already become laws this month alone, CNN reported.

Transgender girls and women are now no longer allowed to compete in women’s sports in Mississippi after a law that went into effect on March 11.

In Tennessee, students are now required to prove their assigned gender at birth to compete in middle and high school sports.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Strangio told CNN. “There have never been this many bills targeting trans youth voted out of committee and then making it to the floor.”

He said there’s something “uniquely dangerous” about the trend.

“I think the impulse underlying both is to try to establish governmental policy that it’s harmful to be trans.”

Anti-Transgender Bills By State

Prohibiting healthcare for transgender youth (number of proposed bills)

Alabama (2)
Arkansas (2)
Florida
Georgia
Iowa
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky (2)
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Oklahoma (2)
South Carolina (3)
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
West Virginia

Excluding transgender youth from athletics

Alabama
Arkansas (3)
Arizona (2)
Connecticut (2)
Maine
Florida (3)
Georgia (3)
Hawaii
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky (2)
Michigan
Minnesota (3)
Missouri (3)
Mississippi
Montana
New Hampshire
New Jersey
North Dakota
New Mexico
Ohio (2)
Oklahoma
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee (3)
Texas (6)
Utah
West Virginia (4)