Last-minute action speeds up Ohio's 'bathroom bill'

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A last-minute act could expedite what has become a divisive bill at the Ohio Statehouse, known as the “bathroom bill.”

“There’s extreme mileage that people get out of attacking LGBTQ rights,” Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said.

“We want to protect children, and this is the way to do that,” Rep. Jena Powell (R-Arcanum) said.

House Bill 183 would require both public and private K-12 schools and colleges to designate specified facilities for the “exclusive use of students of the male or female biological sex.” The bill also “strictly prohibits the construction of any non-gendered or multi-gendered facility,” like a bathroom or locker room.

“Boys can never become girls; therefore, boys should not be in girls’ locker rooms,” Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania) said.

“We decided to spend our time focusing on bathrooms and I think it’s just a waste of taxpayer time and money,” Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said.

Now, after being stalled in the Ohio House for more than two months, one of the last actions Ohio House members took during their last session of the summer was to amend HB183 into Senate Bill 104 — a way to help fast-track its passage. 

“There are many many more priorities that I think most Ohioans want us to be focusing on for their children’s schools and bathrooms — not it,” Russo said. “This body continues over and over again to focus on a small group of children and target and bully children.”

“This is the easiest, most straightforward piece of legislation that we will probably vote on in the next five years in the state of Ohio,” Powell said.

The bill does have a few exceptions written in it, for bathroom use:

• A child under the age of ten who is being assisted by a parent, guardian, or family member and the parent, guardian, or family member who is assisting the child;
• A person with a disability who is being assisted by another person and the person who is providing assistance;
• A school or institution employee whose job duties require the employee to enter a restroom, locker room, changing room, or shower room designated for a biological sex that is different from the employee’s biological sex; or
• A person who enters a restroom, locker room, changing room, or shower room reasonably believing that the person is responding to a legitimate emergency.

While Democrats maintain that they think the bill is both harmful to students and anti-trans, Gov. Mike DeWine is awaiting the policy’s arrival at his desk.

“I’m for people, kids, to be able to go to the bathroom with the gender assignments so that they have that protection,” DeWine said. “But I’ll have to look at the specific language.”

The Senate is coming back to session in November, and since the policy is now in a Senate bill, no committee hearings will be held in that chamber before a floor vote.