AKRON, Ohio — Transgender advocates rallied in Akron Wednesday night, blocking off the street outside the Highland Square Branch Library at one point after the Ohio Senate voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine's veto of House Bill 68.
The new law bans gender-affirming surgeries and hormone therapies and also restricts mental health care for transgender individuals under 18. It also bans trans girls and women from participating in women's and girls sports.
"Screw your system, screw your hate, we are not up for debate!" the group chanted.
"As a transgender adult, I really want to protect the rights of my adolescent community, honestly," Katherine Jurak, of Akron, said.
Jurak says she came out as a trans person 11 years ago, when the landscape was very different.
"They didn't even say transgender when I first came out — it was 'transsexual' or 'tranny,'" she remembered. "So I am very confident that, with the support we have, if we push back against people who are trying to make a political point instead of protect the voters and protect the people as legislators are supposed to do, that we will see our community prevail."
Jurak shared how the gender-affirming care she received as an adult, like hormone therapy, saved her life.
"I know we hear this all over: I would not be here if I did not transition," she declared. "I would have killed myself, because dysphoria is something that is so serious and impacts your every waking life. You cannot live as you are meant to live."
Anntoinette Baker expressed a similar sentiment.
"They deserve the right to mental health and medical help if it will help them face life," she said.
Baker told 3News it took her 15 years to begin to transition, which she says can be an isolating fight for identity.
"Our politicians need to understand that any time you're making a law about a person's health care, you're taking it away from the individual, including the children, who should have a right to their health care and the adults and the professionals," she explained. "They're not professionals; they're politicians."
However, supporters of the bill vow it's the right thing to do.
Ohio state Senator Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland), who represents a portion of Greater Cleveland and co-sponsored HB 68, told WKYC the goal is to protect children like other current state laws, citing the legal driving and drinking ages.
"Gender dysphoria is a real thing, and it needs to be dealt with with counseling," Cirino expressed. "There are a lot of studies out there that tell us that young people who experience gender dysphoria, with the proper counseling, see their way through that without having any surgery or any chemical changes made to their bodies that are in many cases irreversible."
Cirino claims the law will also protect women's sports.
"There are fundamental differences between boys and girls — no one will ever convince me otherwise," he said. "So it would be fundamentally unfair to have girls competing against boys, not to mention the fact that besides the performance issues, there are safety issues here of contact sports."
Cirino says it was not an easy decision to override the governor's veto, and cited his own experience as a father of multiple daughters.
"I raised six daughters," he shared. "They were all involved in sports, they all trained hard, they all practiced hard, we drove them around all over the place for their tournaments and games, and its just disrespectful for me of their efforts to allow competition coming from originally gendered boys who are transitioning to play into girls sports."
The law is set to go into effect in 90 days, although experts anticipate there may be challenges.