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A bill that would ban transgender students from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity is going to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk. 

The Ohio Senate voted to concur on Senate Bill 104 in a 24-7 party-line vote Wednesday afternoon. The Ohio House wove House Bill 183 (the bathroom ban bill) into S.B. 104 and passed the bill before going on break at the end of June. 

Once DeWine receives S.B. 104, he will have 10 days to sign the bill into law or veto it.

“We have no new comments today,” DeWine’s press secretary Dan Tierney said in an email Wednesday afternoon. “As far as receipt, sometimes that can take a week or more.”

The bill would require students at Ohio K-12 schools and colleges use the bathroom or locker room that aligns with their gender assigned at birth. It would not prevent a school from having single-occupancy facilities. The bill would not apply to someone helping a person with a disability or a child younger than 10 years old being assisted by a parent, guardian or family member. 

About 3% of high school students identify as transgender, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The American Medical Association officially opposes policies preventing transgender individuals from accessing basic human services and public facilities consistent with gender identity.

State Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, introduced S.B. 104, which revises the College Credit Plus Program, and he spoke about the House adding the bathroom bill to his bill. 

“It revolves around safety, security and, I think, common sense,” he said. “It protects our children and grandchildren in private spaces where they are most vulnerable. It is us using our legislative authority to ensure schools are, in fact, safe environments. After all, bathrooms, showers, changing rooms should all be safe places for our students.”

Senate Democrats spoke in opposition to weaving the bathroom ban into S.B. 104. 

“We could not wait one week, not one single week before we start attacking children once again in this legislative body,” said state sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus.

State Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, said S.B. 104 started off as a good piece of legislation “that got turned into something that’s certainly not what was intended when this chamber last heard it.” 

“Lame duck often takes good legislation and makes it terrible,” he said. 

If the bill becomes law, Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, said it “is destined for litigation.” 

“I am in disbelief that this is a top priority on our first session back from recess,” Antonio said. “This bill is not about bathrooms. It’s about demonizing those who are different, and our children are watching and listening to the fearmongering.”

State Reps. Beth Lear, R-Galena, and Adam Bird, R-New Richmond, introduced H.B. 183 last year and it has received lots of pushback from the LGBTQ+ community. More than 100 people testified against the bill in committee. 

Nearly a third of LGBTQ+ students said they were prevented from using the bathroom that aligned with their gender, and 26% were stopped from using the locker room that aligned with their gender, according to Ohio’s 2021 state snapshot by GLSEN, which examines the school experiences of LGBTQ middle and high school students.

When looking specifically at transgender and nonbinary students, 42% were prevented from using the bathroom that aligned with their gender and 36% couldn’t use the locker room that aligned with their gender, according to the Ohio GLSEN report. 

A 2019 study published in the journal Pediatrics reported transgender youth are at greater risk of sexual violence when they are unable to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender. 

About a quarter of the 3,673 trans and nonbinary middle and high school students surveyed in the United States reported being sexually assaulted in the last 12 months, according to the 2019 study. The number went up to 35% among students who attended schools that limited their bathroom and locker room access.

Other states with bathroom bans  

Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Florida, and Utah all have laws on the books that ban transgender people from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity in schools. 

These laws, however, have been challenged in Florida, Oklahoma, Idaho, and Tennessee. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit blocked Idaho’s law last year.  

North Carolina was the first state to limit bathroom access to transgender people in 2016, but the law was repealed in 2017 and ultimately settled in federal court in 2019. The law cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Everybody deserves to pee”

LGBTQ+ advocates held a press conference in opposition to the bathroom bill before the Senate session. 

“Everybody deserves to be able to pee, and everyone deserves to pee,” said Dara Adkison, executive director of TransOhio.

This bill would directly affect transgender college student Leo Duru. 

“What if I was forced to use the bathroom of my assigned sex at birth, a women’s restroom?” Duru said. “As a 21-year-old trans man, I can’t believe adult students would be subjected to restroom policies decided by politicians forcing teachers, professors and administrators to invade trans students’ personal privacy.”

Mallory Golski with Kaleidoscope Youth Center shared concerns she hears from students who are already worried about using the bathroom in school. 

“I realized that it’s not uncommon for them to feel fatigued or even dizzy at times during (swim) practice, because they’re often dehydrated,” she said. “It is not because they’re not thirsty or because they don’t know the reason that they should be drinking water. It’s because they don’t feel comfortable or safe using the gendered restrooms at school.”

Organizations are calling on DeWine to veto S.B. 104.

“Everyone should be able to use the bathroom without being the target of bullying – from their peers, and especially from state legislators,” Kaleidoscope Executive Director Erin Upchurch said in a statement. 

“This bill has nothing to do with student safety and everything to do with political opportunism,” Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper said in a statement. “There is no epidemic of student assaults in bathrooms and locker rooms.”

This is the second bill related to transgender issues that has gone to DeWine’s desk so far this General Assembly. Last December, DeWine vetoed House Bill 68, the ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, but the House and Senate quickly voted to override his veto. 

Antonio is not optimistic DeWine will veto S.B. 104. 

“I don’t expect that,” Antonio said. “I think this bill was framed in a way that was very, very different.”

DeWine previously indicated he would sign the bill.

Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on X.