(LifeSiteNews) — The Ohio House of Representatives passed legislation that prevents gender-confused students from using opposite-sex bathrooms and locker rooms.
House Bill 183 was added as an amendment to Senate Bill 104 last Wednesday during the chamber’s final session before summer recess. The measure passed 60-31 along party lines, with two Republicans voting with Democrats against it.
The proposal, which GOP Gov. Mike DeWine has said he would sign, is aimed at K-12 students enrolled in public and charter schools as well as at universities. It also prevents co-ed high schoolers and younger students from sharing overnight accommodations.
Bill co-sponsor and Republican State Rep. Beth Lear of Galena plainly argued in a statement that “boys and girls should not be in locker rooms together.”
As pointed out by several Ohio-based media outlets, similar measures have been passed in GOP-leaning states. ABC-affiliate News 5 Cleveland reported that Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Florida, and Utah have approved bills that prohibit gender-confused persons from using opposite-sex bathrooms.
In January, Ohio lawmakers overrode DeWine’s veto of a bill that bans transgender drugs and surgeries for minors. According to the Ohio Capital Journal, lawmakers discussed whether to do so for about an hour before ultimately agreeing to proceed. Republican Sen. Kristina Roegner said at the time that “gender is not fluid” and that “there is no such thing as a gender spectrum.”
Despite their override, officials were stymied due to a Franklin County judge temporarily halting the measure from going into effect in April. The decision was handed down after the ultra-liberal American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit.
Other courts across the U.S. have ruled on similar laws, with several of them being struck down. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court opted not to hear a case decided by the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed a female student in Indiana to use the boys’ bathroom.
As reported by LifeSite, “detransitioners,” the name for individuals who used to present themselves as the opposite sex, have often spoken out against the procedures they underwent. Parents of students at public schools have likewise confronted school boards after passing pro-LGBT politics that have resulted in their children being attacked or sexually assaulted by gender-confused classmates in the bathroom.