COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday announced he has vetoed controversial legislation that would prohibit minors from receiving gender-affirming medical treatment and ban transgender athletes from playing women’s high-school and college sports.
Advocates for LGBTQ youth celebrated the decision, but it doesn’t close the door on a range of potential policy changes. The bill passed with legislative majorities that could override DeWine’s veto, and the governor said his administration would propose rules to address some of the legislative proponent’s concerns, including banning gender-affirming surgeries for children.
“Were I to sign House Bill 68, or were House Bill 68 to become law, Ohio would be saying that the state, that the government knows better what is medically best for a child than the two people who love that child the most: their parents,” said DeWine during a news conference.
The governor said he listened to doctors, counselors who provide gender-affirming care, and parents who told him that their children would have taken their own lives if they didn’t receive such care. Decisions about gender-affirming care, he said, should be left to families and their doctors.
“This bill would impact a very small number of Ohio’s children,” DeWine said. “But for those children who face gender dysphoria, and for their families, the consequences of this bill could not be more profound. Ultimately, I believe this is about protecting human life.”
With the rejection of House Bill 68 by DeWine, a Republican, the GOP-dominated Ohio General Assembly gets until the end of 2024 to decide whether to override the veto, which requires at least 60 of 99 House votes and at least 20 of 33 Senate votes. A veto override of HB68 likely won’t be a challenge, as HB68 passed the House 64-28 in June and cleared the Senate 24-8 on Dec. 13. Both votes on the Republican-authored bill were mostly along party lines.
HB68 would allow youth currently undergoing gender-affirming care to continue getting that treatment if they are an Ohio resident and if their physician documents that terminating the minor’s hormone prescription would cause harm.
Mainstream medical associations support gender-affirming care in the form of hormones. Surgical sex changes in children are not routine, according to guidance from the American Psychological Association. DeWine said his decision to veto HB68 stemmed in part from concerns he heard about the legislation while visiting children’s hospitals around Ohio.
Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer has reached out to the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association for comment on the veto. Last spring, the association’s president testified against HB68, saying that it would ban “all medical treatment on age-appropriate medications that are used in extremely limited but critical circumstances, while creating broad sweeping barriers for access to mental health care without justification.”
Children experiencing gender dysphoria can take puberty-blocking hormones up until age 16 to buy time to explore their gender identity, according to the APA. The treatments are reversible.
Youth can receive cross-sex hormones of testosterone if they identify as a male and estrogen plus an androgen inhibitor if they identify as female. These treatments are partially reversible, the APA says.
Transgender people make up just 1% to 2% of the U.S. population. Estimates in Ohio put the number of transgender people at under 1% of the state’s population.
DeWine said his decision to veto HB68 was based more on its provisions about gender-affirming care than about its ban on transgender athletes, because the former issue affects more people.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association says fewer than 15 transgender students a year have used its policy, which requires students to demonstrate they’ve been taking hormones for at least a year or show by way of sound medical evidence that they don’t possess any physical or physiological advantages over genetic females in the same age group in bone structure, muscle mass and testosterone.
Interscholastic athletic associations have policies in place that attempt to balance protecting the student’s medical privacy while also being fair to all athletes. HB68 would void them.
DeWine, a Republican, also said that he is directing his administration to draft rules to ban gender-affirming surgeries in Ohio for minors, to collect data on when such procedures are performed in Ohio on both children and adults, and prevent “pop-up clinics” that perform such medical treatment. Such rules, which would need to be approved by a legislative committee, are more likely to be upheld in court than, he said.
Both supporters and opponents of HB68, though, downplayed the effects of DeWine’s proposed administrative rules.
Maria Bruno, public policy director for the pro-LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Ohio, said she’s “less concerned” about banning gender-affirming surgeries for minors, as opposed to other sorts of treatment like puberty blockers, because major hospitals in Ohio aren’t performing such surgical procedures. Aaron Baer, president of the conservative Center for Christian Virtue, said DeWine’s proposed rules are “hollow” because DeWine’s successor as governor could easily repeal them.
Some legislative Republicans called for a quick vote to override DeWine’s veto. That would require at least three-fifths support from each chamber -- first in the House, where the bill originated, and then in the Senate.
Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, a Lawrence County Republican, said in a statement that House Republicans will discuss how to “take the appropriate next steps” in response to the governor’s veto.
“It is disappointing that the Governor vetoed House Bill 68, the SAFE Act and Save Women’s Sports,” Stephens said. “The bill sponsors, and the House, have dedicated nearly three years to get the bill right — to empower parents and protect children.”
State Rep. Gary Click, a Sandusky County Republican who sponsored HB68, issued a statement that focused on working with DeWine to come to some sort of a mutual agreement, rather than simply overriding his veto. Click commended DeWine, stating that the governor “cleared his schedule and immersed himself in this weighty topic” over the past 10 days.
“It is abundantly clear that the Governor’s heart was moved by those who spoke to him concerning the loss of life through suicide. Any reasonable person has the same reaction, and he cannot be blamed for that. My initial reaction was no different,” Click said. “However, multiple conversations with professionals and families who felt manipulated by similar rhetoric brought a more in-depth understanding of the time-tested best practices in suicide prevention. Despite our initial differences on some of these issues, I am happy that the Governor wants to work together to find a common solution. I am hopeful that increased communication can bring the best solution to our great state.”
Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, issued a statement that appeared to be more pointedly in favor of a veto override.
“I’m extremely disappointed by the Governor’s veto. Changes were made to the bill to accommodate his concerns, and the bill was strongly supported in the Senate by the Republican Caucus,” Huffman said. “We look forward to the House taking the next step.”
Legislative Democrats, meanwhile, applauded DeWine’s decision.
“I appreciate that Governor DeWine took his time to listen to the individuals most impacted by this discriminatory legislation and to understand the fact-based science on this issue,” said House Minority Leader Allison Russo, a Democrat from suburban Columbus, in a statement. “It sends a much needed message of support to Ohio’s LGBTQ+ youth that they and their families are seen and heard and deserve the fundamental freedom like everyone else to feel safe in their own communities and to maintain their rights as parents to make medical decisions that are best for their children.”
DeWine’s own lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, expressed his support for HB68 on Thursday in a statement posted on X. “Men should not compete in women’s sports. Permanent medical decisions concerning gender should not be made when you are a child,” stated Husted, who is exploring a run for governor in 2026, when DeWine has to leave office because of term limits.
HB68 began as a bill banning Ohioans under age 18 from gender-affirming care – even if their parents consented to it. A separate bill prohibited transgender girls and women from female school sports in college and middle and high school. Lawmakers merged the bills together under HB 68 in June.
In other states with bans, groups representing youth and athletes have filed lawsuits seeking to overturn those laws. The outcomes have been mixed.
In West Virginia, where litigation over a sports ban is ongoing, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to reinstate the law – which had been put on hold by a lower court for the duration of the lawsuit. However, a federal appeals court recently decided to allow several former high school female athletes to challenge a policy in Connecticut that allowed transgender girls to compete on girls’ teams, saying they were deprived of wins and athletic opportunities because of the transgender athletes.
The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit of Appeals has decided to allow Tennessee and Kentucky to enforce their bans on minor gender care. Another federal appeals court is allowing Alabama to enforce its law. But federal courts in Arkansas Florida, Georgia and Indiana have overturned their bans.
Laura Hancock covers state government and politics for The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com.