The vote, which was largely along partisan lines, means the law goes into effect in 90 days

By Jackson Hare, Campus News Editor

The Ohio Senate has voted to override Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of Ohio House Bill 68, banning some gender-affirming care for minors and restricting transgender women’s and girls’ participation on sports teams throughout the state. 

With the 24-8 vote in favor of overturning DeWine’s veto, which occurred last Wednesday, Ohio joins nearly two-dozen other GOP-led states that have adopted similar laws after the Ohio House also voted to overturn DeWine’s veto of the bill earlier this month. A three-fifths majority of both the Ohio House and Senate were required to overturn the veto.

Since both chambers passed the override, the bill has been delivered to the secretary of state’s office and is set to go in effect in 90 days, or around the end of April.

Democrats said they supported the veto, while Republicans expressed their disappointment in the governor’s action. State Sen. Nathan Manning was the sole Republican to vote against overriding the veto of the bill, which included the Saving Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act.

The SAFE Act restricts gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors and requires K-12 and institutions of higher education to designate sex-segregated sports teams, while also banning transgender girls from participating on women’s and girls’ sports teams. House Bill 68 also contained a grandfather clause that would allow doctors who started treatments to continue working with patients.

The law means doctors who offer minors gender affirming care, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapies and gender reassignment surgery in an effort to further align them with their gender identity can face legal consequences and could lose their license to practice.

​Following the override of DeWine’s veto, bill sponsor Rep. Gary Click released a statement commending the Ohio Senate.

“The SAFE Act and Save Women’s Sports Act are the civil rights issues of our day, ensuring that children have the right to grow up intact and that women are no longer subject to men invading their spaces,” Click said.

Meanwhile, opponents of the SAFE Act have criticized the bill. Sen. Kent Smith described the bill as “state-sponsored bullying of trans youth.”

Parents of transgender youth across Ohio have advocated against the bill since its conception. Minna Zelch, with Trans Allies of Ohio, said she was “fluctuating between rage and complete despair.”

“I’ve never been so grateful our daughter is over 18, and my heart is breaking for all the parents and kids I know who are now packing boxes or traveling hours out of state just to get medical care,” Zelch said.

The American Civil Liberties announced plans to file a lawsuit that challenged the ban on gender-affirming care for minors and to halt the law before it goes into effect.

​Leo Fowler, the president of Xavier’s LGBTQ+ Alliance, was disappointed by the vote to override the veto.

​“I was hoping that when Governor DeWine vetoed it, it would stay dead. It’s disappointing to me as a transgender man,” he said. 

“It (was vetoed) because it’s popular. Ohio is not the first state to do it and is definitely not the last, but it doesn’t come out of a place of genuine care for the community, because if they did, they wouldn’t be going about it this way,” Fowler said.

While LGBTQ+ advocates and organizations are speaking out and initiating legal challenges against these pieces of legislation, Ohio GOP and Michigan legislators have publicly discussed an “endgame” of transgender care, even for adults, during an online forum.

“Why would we stop this for anyone under 18, but not apply this for anyone over 18? It’s harmful across the board, and I think that’s something that we need to take into consideration,” Michigan Rep. Josh Schivers said.

Among the 20 other states that have passed similar bills, Arkansas’ ban on gender affirming care for transgender minors, which is paralleled by  House Bill 68, has been struck down by U.S. District Judge Jay Moody. Similar bills have met the same fate in other states, including Alabama, Indiana and Florida.