(The Center Square) – Ohio lawmakers who introduced legislation barring state agencies from defining a parent as harmful or dangerous for affirming their child’s sex rather than their gender, are “extremists,” a non-profit group said in a statement.
“Tuesday, a small group of fringe Republican lawmakers introduced a bill that would enshrine discriminatory anti-LGBTQ+ principles into nearly every aspect of Ohio’s child welfare and family law system,” said the group, Equality Ohio.
House Bill 693 would “create an irrefutable right to transgender conversion therapy,” the group also said.
It would also block judges and child protective services from “responding appropriately to
abuse involving LGBTQ+ kids, threaten occupational licensure for doctors, teachers, and
therapists who use gender-affirming language, and prevent child placement agencies from
collecting data to make sure queer kids in the child welfare system are placed in safe homes,” Equality Ohio said.
The legislation is titled the Affirming Families First Act and is sponsored by Republican State Reps. Gary Click and Josh Williams, among others.
It is the most comprehensive bill of its kind in the nation, according to Laura Hanford, Senior Policy Analyst with the Heritage Foundation.
“Government agencies may not proactively solicit information from minors on the sexual orientation of gender identity of expression,” Click said at a news conference Tuesday describing the provisions of the bill. “They may not compel parents to confirm a child’s false perceptions about their sex or about their so-called gender identity.”
The legislation would also prohibit agencies from contracting with organizations to provide educational materials that suggest it is harmful to affirm a child’s sex rather than confirm a child’s confusion about their sexual identity.
Dwayne Steward, executive director of Equality Ohio, is himself the father of an adopted child, he said in a statement.
“As an adoptive father myself, I know first-hand that Ohio’s child welfare system is based on a
simple principle: what matters most is what’s best for the child,” Steward said. “HB 693 undermines evidence-based child welfare protections and, if passed, this bill would lead to increased trauma, victimization and abuse of Ohio’s kids.”
LGBTQ+ children are over-represented in the Ohio child welfare system because they have been rejected by their families, Steward said. The bill also prohibits denying a person the right to serve as a foster parent “because they will not confirm the child’s misperception of being the opposite sex,” Click said.
The legislation was prompted by “radical gender ideology” which has infiltrated child protective services, said Hanford of the Heritage Foundation
“It’s common sense that queer kids should be placed in homes that accept queer kids,” he said.
HB 693 would also prohibits denying a person the right to serve as a foster parent “because they will not confirm the child’s misperception of being the opposite sex,” Click said at a news conference.
