COLUMBUS, Ohio — EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal
Republican Ohio state Rep. Beth Lear compared gender dysphoria to people who think they are birds during Wednesday’s House Higher Education Committee meeting while she was talking about a bathroom ban bill she is co-sponsoring.
“If I had a child who thought he was a bird, am I going to take them to a doctor who tells me the best thing to do is to let him explore being a bird and oh by the way, there’s a five-story building next door, why don’t you jump off and see if you can fly,” Lear, R-Galena, said. “There are ridiculous things that we are doing and allowing.”
Lear was responding to a question asked by state Rep. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, about if she believed transgender people existed.
“I take offense to you comparing transgender people to people imagining they are other species or things like that,” Weinstein said.
House Bill 183 which would require K-12 schools and colleges to mandate students could only use the bathroom or locker room that matches their sex assigned at birth. It would also prohibit schools from allowing students to share overnight accommodations with the opposite sex.
The American Medical Association officially opposes policies preventing transgender individuals from accessing basic human services and public facilities consistent with gender identity.
The biggest change in the bill, which has already had opponent and proponent testimony, would ban K-12 schools and universities from having multi-use gender neutral facilities.
Lear and the bill’s co-sponsor, state Rep. Adam Bird, R-New Richmond, insist the bill is about protecting children, but Weinstein asked if there was a need for this bill.
“I’m not aware of any complaints in higher ed or in education in general about this,” he said. “Is this a solution looking for a problem?”
Bird, a former superintendent, said Ohio school district superintendents asked him to introduce this bill.
“I believe that this is an issue that is important to a growing number of Americans and a growing number of Ohioans,” he said. “I think we as a legislative body need to weigh in and quit sitting on the sideline while the executive branch in Washington D.C. and the judicial branch makes decisions.”
State Rep. Munira Abdullahi, D-Columbus, asked how this bill would be enforced.
“Education institutions can create policies that are consistent with the language in this bill,” Lear said.
When asked what the penalty would be for violating this law, Bird said it would be up to the policy writer at the school and university.
State Rep. Ismail Mohamed, D-Columbus, asked the bill’s sponsors why not let the individual schools or districts decide.
“The safest place for a young woman who is confused about her gender is not to go into the men’s locker room,” Lear answered. “The safest place for young women in college is not to have a man who is confused about his identity come in and watch them.”
State Rep. Joe Miller, ranking member on the Higher Education Committee, said this bill reminds him of previous racial segregation.
“This is eerily reminiscent of discussions in the 1950s about how white women feared black males in the same restaurant,” he said. “I’m hearing the same arguments, it’s eerily similar to the racist policies that were had in the south regarding special bathrooms.”
Bird pushed back on that claim.
“I would reject the argument that this bill is similar,” he said. “This is a bill about safety.”
Read more from the Ohio Capital Journal HERE.
