OAN’s Abril Elfi
11:39 AM – Thursday, December 14, 2023
Lawmakers in Ohio passed a bill that restricts minors from accessing “gender-affirming care,” and the bill also included verbiage to suggest that boys who identify as transgender girls would no longer have the ability to join female sports teams.
On Wednesday, House Bill 68 was passed, which bans provision of gender-affirming medical and surgical care, hormone blockers, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and certain mental health services to trans and nonbinary youth, among other measures.
If instated, health care professionals who provide any of these procedures listed will lose their licenses and can even be sued.
The bill was first introduced by Representative Gary Click (R-Ohio.)
“Parents are being manipulated by the physicians,” Click asserted.
LGBTQ+ advocates have been speaking out against House Bill 68, including one popular social media user named Cassidy who was born a female and who later transitioned to identify as a transgender male when she was 14-years-old. However, Cassidy decided to detransition back to female, her original gender, a few years later.
“These bills are being proposed using stories like mine as evidence to support them,” Cassidy said. “I’m not mutilated; I’m not ruined or unlovable.”
Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Ohio) argued that the bill prevents allegedly “confused teens” and “pressured parents” from “ruining” minors’ bodies before they know who they are.
The bill will now head to Governor Mike DeWine’s (R-Ohio) desk, however, it is not clear whether he will sign or veto the bill.
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