‘This is None of Your Business.’ Ohioans Testify Against The Proposed Ban on Gender-Affirming Care

A third hearing was held on Wednesday for HB 68, the “Saving Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act.”

If passed, the bill would ban gender-affirming care in the state of Ohio. It would also prohibit physicians from prescribing cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers and from performing any type of gender-affirming surgery on minors. Additionally, the bill would outlaw conduct that “aids and abets,” prohibiting health care providers from helping their minor patients receive gender-affirming care in other states.

Wednesday’s hearing was opponent testimony, those testifying against HB 68. The committee received over 300 pieces of testimony in opposition to the bill. Only nine of these individuals were granted the time to testify.

Hospitals pushing back

The hearing began with Nick Lashutka, president and CEO of Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, an organization that has been repeatedly bashed by bill sponsor Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery). University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Nationwide Children’s in Columbus are members of the organization.

“We have been accused of establishing gender clinics to make money. This is false,” Lashutka said. “The majority of our care in these clinics is mental health. Any provider can tell you that across all types of insurance, behavioral health services are provided at a financial loss.”

Lashutka then attempted to unequivocally address Click’s claims about gender-affirming surgeries on minors taking place in Ohio.

“We do not perform any surgeries on minors for the condition of gender dysphoria,” Lashutka said.

Dr. Patty Manning-Courtney, a developmental pediatrician who is Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s chief of staff, urged the committee to consider the sources of testimony.

“None of the people who have previously testified in support of this bill are pediatricians or individuals from Ohio who received care in one of our clinics and now have regrets,” she said. “You trust us for every other aspect of pediatric care. Strep throat, ear infections, diabetes, seizures, autism and cancer. But not this. Why aren’t we trusted to self-regulate on this very specific aspect of health care?”

Manning-Courtney highlighted the “essential” role parents play in making decisions on behalf of their children,” and questioned why the legislature was introducing a bill that presumes legislators know better than parents what is best for children.

Parents speak out

Another opponent of the bill, Ann Becker, described herself as a lifelong Constitutionalist, co-chair of her Ohio county’s Trump Campaign in 2016 and 2020, vice-chair of her county Republican Party Central Committee and a mother of a transgender child.

“HB68 takes parents’ rights and turns them over to the state. This is something that should not happen in Ohio,” Becker said.

She then said she had an epiphany as she was coordinating all of her child’s medical records and anecdotes in preparing her testimony.

“I realized, this is none of your business. What I do with my child is none of your business,” Becker said. “You should feel embarrassed that these people have to come before you and tell you their stories.”

Giles Roblyer introduced himself as being a person of faith and the parent of a trans child.

“I’ve been blessed by God with the joyous task of parenting and protecting a wonderful trans child, which is just more proof that God doesn’t make mistakes,” Roblyer said. “I’m here for the third year to protest this attempt to strip away my sacred, biblical, Constitutional parental rights to decide what is best for my child.”

Roblyer then progressed through Click’s proponent testimony (“a swamp of misinformation”) to debunk footnotes that Click provided as medical evidence that were provided from non-medical sources. He then questioned why representatives like Click were so fixated on the genitalia and sex lives of minors.

“Why does the state care about my 12-year-old’s libido? As a father, this seriously creeps me out,” Roblyer said.

Representative questioning

Carey Callahan, a detransitioned woman and family therapist, spoke specifically about the previous hearing in which detransitioners were used as the reason to push forward HB 68, a tactic Republican representatives also used at Wednesday’s hearing.

“I am begging you to stop referencing detransitioners such as myself as a justification for attacking trans health care and trans people,” Callahan said. “You aren’t protecting children from becoming a detransitioner like me. You are exiling good people from our state, traumatizing kids and families and working hard to make Ohio a less safe place to raise kids.”

Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville), honing in on the part of the bill banning gender-affirming surgeries, asked six different witnesses whether they supported removing the penis and testicles of 15-year-old boys or the breasts of 15-year-old girls.

Chair Scott Lipps (R-Franklin) repeatedly backed up Stewart and admonished witnesses when they didn’t answer Stewart’s question to Lipps’ satisfaction.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Lipps provided his own testimony, saying that the only people denigrating detransitioners were trans individuals, that no one is leaving Ohio due to anti-LGBTQ+ laws and that there are no anti-trans laws currently passed by the legislature.

In 2021, Lipps voted “yes” on Ohio’s “Medical Practitioner Conscience” clause. Passed by the Ohio legislature in 2021, it allows health care providers to refuse care if they feel that care conflicts with their “moral, ethical, or religious beliefs.” At the time, the legislation was described by national LGBTQ+ orgs as the “most homophobic and transphobic law in the country.”

Lipps said that there will be another hearing for HB 68 in June for all parties to testify.