Ohio House overrides Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of transgender sports-and-surgeries bill

The Ohio House voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of a sweeping transgender bill banning gender-transition treatment for minors and biological males in female sports, sending the measure to the Senate for final passage.

The House’s Republican super-majority voted 65-28 in an emergency session Wednesday to overturn the GOP governor’s Dec. 29 veto of House Bill 68, which combines the Saving Adolescents from Experimentation Act and Save Women’s Sports Act.

The House easily cleared the three-fifths majority, or 59 votes, needed under state law to override a gubernatorial veto. The Senate, which also has a veto-proof Republican majority, is scheduled to return Jan. 24, and would need 20 votes to upend the veto.

If both chambers override the veto, the law would go into effect 90 days later.

“This is a vote to protect women and children,” said Republican state Rep. Melanie Miller after the vote.  “We must protect our children from making life-altering decisions at such an early age — decisions that they will never be able to reverse. Moms and dads always need to be a part of these critical decisions.”
She added that the override “ensures that females can compete on a level playing field, and not against biological males.”

The vote to nix the governor’s veto came over the objections of House Democrats, many of whom wore pink-and-blue transgender flag pins and rainbow LGBT earrings during the floor debate.

“Trans children and adults deserve our empathy and understanding instead of this aggressive attack on their rights,” said Democratic state Rep. Anita Somani. “If you are a corporation or university or business, how will you recruit the brightest and best to come to a state that is busy taking away human rights and taking away health care from minors?”

Mr. DeWine sought to stave off an override last week with an executive order banning gender-transition surgeries for minors, but Republicans said the action fell short by, for example, failing to prohibit puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

The governor’s order also said nothing about women’s sports.

🚨 The Ohio House voted (65-28) to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of HB 68!

The override effort now moves to the Ohio Senate. pic.twitter.com/WcQU3cUSIp

— Family Research Council (@FRCdc) January 10, 2024

In his veto message, the governor raised concerns about the government usurping the ability of parents to direct their children’s medical care, but Republican state Rep. Gary Click argued Wednesday that parental rights aren’t absolute.

“Consultation with an ideologically captured physician does not grant parents the right to harm children with irreversible surgeries and harmful drugs,” said Mr. Click, the bill’s sponsor, on the House floor.

“No parent has the constitutional right to harm their child,” he continued. “The same government that requires you to send your children to school, prohibits you from giving them illicit drugs, and can charge parents with neglect and abuse also has the obligation to prevent parents and physicians from chemically castrating and sterilizing their children.”

Democratic state Rep. Richard Brown raised a legal issue, saying that the bill combining the transgender medical and sports issues “violates the single-subject rule, and the veto of the governor should stand for that reason alone.”

Twenty-three states have passed measures prohibiting male-born athletes from participating in female sports, while 22 states have approved restrictions on medicalized gender-transition treatment for minors.

The American Civil Liberties Union blasted the override vote, saying that the “state-sponsored vendetta against some of Ohio’s most vulnerable young people is beyond cruel. We stand in solidarity with all trans youth.”

Those cheering the vote included Logan Church, political director of CatholicVote, who said he hopes the Senate “promptly follows in the House’s footsteps to preserve the principles Ohioans hold dear.”

“Under no circumstance should our children become victims to the hospital industry’s disgusting money grabs, nor should our daughters be denied the opportunity to have fair competition against other biological females,” Mr. Church said.