A new bill set to be heard in the Ohio General Assembly this week looks to codify gender identity regulations, in a measure that sponsors say would ensure “parents are not punished for raising their children consistent with biological reality.”
The bill is being criticized by LGBTQ+ advocates as discriminatory against transgender youth.
Ohio House Bill 693 is yet another bill under the GOP-supported umbrella of “parental rights.”
It would establish that “affirming a child’s sex” does not qualify as abuse or neglect, does not run “contrary to the best interests of the child,” and does not create an “unsafe environment for the child,” according to the Legislative Service Commission analysis of the bill.
The measure is set to be introduced on Wednesday in the House Judiciary Committee, where the committee will get the first take of the bill from sponsors state Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickers, and Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Twp.
That language in the legislation would apply to the areas of “parental rights and responsibilities,” child abuse investigations, placement of children, medical care, professional licensing, employment, collection of data, and “withholding or concealing information.”
The sponsors say the bill would also ban the use of educational materials from “outside organizations” that indicate the use of a minor’s “biological sex” could cause psychological harm or constitute a threat to the child’s safety.
“It is the public policy of this state that a parent has the fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s minor child, including the right to affirm the minor child’s sex,” the bill states.
In filing the bill, the sponsors claimed it works to lessen government interference in family life.
“It is unconscionable to think that local government entities would flag a parent as being a danger to their son for declining to buy him a dress or call him her,” Click said in a statement. “We will not tolerate such government overreach in the state of Ohio.”
Click has previously led anti-trans legislation banning gender-affirming care for youth, which the General Assembly supported by overriding the veto of Gov. Mike DeWine in 2024.
In fact, the lawmaker thinks gender-affirming care is a form of “child abuse,” according to comments he made in 2023.
LGBTQ+ nonprofit group Equality Ohio has come out in opposition to the bill, saying it would “create an irrefutable right to transgender conversion therapy, 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 create barriers to data used by child placement agencies to place LGBTQ+ children in appropriate homes.
“H.B. 693 undermines evidence-based child welfare protections and, if passed, this bill would lead to increased trauma, victimization, and abuse of Ohio’s kids,” said Dwayne Steward, CEO and executive director of Equality Ohio, in a statement.
A 2025 study by The Trevor Project found that things like discrimination, physical threats, and the inability to have basic needs met led to a higher likelihood of anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts in LGBTQ+ youth.
The same study found that “supportive actions from family, friends, and affirming environments improved mental health and suicide risk over time.”
The National Alliance on Mental Illness called gender-affirming care “crucial to overall health and well-being for transgender people of all ages,” citing studies finding access to the care that supports a person’s gender identity can improve mental health outcomes.
“Similarly, denying gender-affirming care can worsen mental health symptoms and increase suicide risk,” according to the alliance.