Trans Bathroom Ban

Emboldened by the Election, Ohio GOPers Push Through a Trans Bathroom Ban

“It’s really not about the bathrooms. It’s about demonizing and frightening people.”

Sarah Szilagy

To Republican lawmakers, the 2024 election results were the mandate they’d been hoping for to justify their attacks on transgender rights. After a historically anti-LGBTQ campaign cycle in which more than $200 million was pumped into anti-trans advertisements, GOP elected officials from Congress to state legislatures are feeling emboldened by Donald Trump’s victory—and moving fast to put the next wave of transphobic policies in place.

Ohio is a case in point. Just a week after Trump was declared the president-elect, the Republican-controlled state Senate passed a law banning transgender people in K-12 schools and colleges from using “single-sex” facilities that align with their gender identity—everything from bathrooms to locker rooms to dormitories. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who made national headlines almost a year ago when he vetoed the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors (quickly overridden by the GOP statehouse supermajority), quietly signed the new law Wednesday morning. He issued no statement.

The new law prohibits all public and private schools and colleges from offering multi-stall bathrooms that are gender-neutral. Schools can—but are not required to—establish single-user restrooms. Otherwise, to safely use bathrooms, trans students will have to ask permission to access faculty facilities.

“I just don’t foresee a scenario in which schools that are already historically underfunded are going to be able to drop everything and build new bathrooms,” Mallory Golski, civic engagement and advocacy manager at Kaleidoscope Youth Center, a queer youth support organization in Columbus, told Mother Jones after the bill passed. “It’s just not possible.”

Ohio’s ban makes it the 14th state to restrict trans people’s access to restrooms since 2021, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Most bans apply only to K-12 schools; in a few states, including Florida, the ban applies to all government buildings and carries criminal penalties. Ohio’s law explicitly authorizes schools to use students’ birth certificates to verify gender assigned at birth, but doesn’t include an enforcement mechanism—other than the fear it creates in trans students to police themselves.

Meanwhile in Washington, Republicans have targeted Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first openly trans person elected to Congress. After GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina launched an effort to ban trans people from U.S. Capitol bathrooms, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) vowed to fight any trans woman she sees trying to use a women’s restroom, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that restrooms on Capitol Hill were “reserved for individuals of that biological sex.” Mace then proposed a bathroom ban for all federal property, including museums and national parks.

Republicans contend—without any evidence—that banning trans people from using gender-aligned bathrooms, locker rooms, and dorms is a way to ensure student safety. To the contrary, researchers have found no link between trans-inclusive bathroom policies and safety risks.

Indeed, according to the US Department of Justice, trans people are victimized by violent crime at 2.5 times the rate of their cisgender counterparts, and queer people in general are more likely to experience sexual violence. Research has shown that trans students face greater risk of sexual harassment and assault in schools with restrictive bathroom policies. 

Ohio’s bathroom ban was originally introduced in May 2023, but this summer it was added to an unrelated, bipartisan bill to reform a state program allowing middle and high school students to take college classes for credit. Then the bill sat until the legislature returned from recess after the November election.

“Ohioans and Americans, quite frankly, across this country, don’t want boys in girls’ sports, don’t want boys in girls’ locker rooms, they don’t want boys in girls’ bathrooms,” Sen. Kristina Roegner, a Republican representing the northeast Ohio suburb of Hudson, said during the Senate floor debate in mid-November. “This message was sent loud and clear last week during the national election. I say we listen.” The bill passed 24 to 7, along party lines.

“It’s really not about the bathrooms. It’s about demonizing and frightening people,” Democrat Nickie Antonio, the Ohio Senate minority leader and the first openly gay person elected to the Ohio legislature, said on the Senate floor. “We are telling our children: There are people that are ‘less than,’ they are not the same, they are not allowed to behave exactly like ‘the rest of us.’ That is a terrible message.”

The message rings loud and clear in the ears of Ohio’s trans youth, says Golski of Kaleidoscope Youth Center. Many trans young people who have lived in the state their entire lives—who otherwise want to stay—are taking steps to leave. Golski doesn’t blame them.

“You can’t say, ‘Oh no, stick it out,’” Golski says. “It’s like: Go, run for the hills. Go anywhere but here.”