This article first appeared on the Buckeye Flame.
The Ohio Senate has passed their version of the state’s two-year budget and left intact all of the anti-LGBTQ+ provisions passed by the House.
The version that the Senate passed on Wednesday included:
- A policy that cribs from President Donald Trump’s executive order “to recognize two sexes, male and female.” According to the budget language, “these sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
- Banning the use of Medicaid for mental health services that “promote or affirm gender transition.”
- Withholding state money from youth shelters that support transgender youth.
- Requiring libraries to place material related to sexual orientation or gender identity or expression out of the view of persons under the age 18.
- Banning menstrual products from the men’s restrooms of public buildings.
- Mandating that state agencies may only fly the official Ohio state flag on the grounds or buildings, effectively banning the display of Pride flags.
The budget was approved by a vote of 23 to 10, mostly along party lines with Sen. Louis W. Blessing III (R-Colerain Township) breaking ranks to vote against the 5,048 page document.
The Senate did not approve proposed language that would have required that driver’s licenses or birth certificates reflect transgender people’s sex assigned at birth. In a written statement, LGBTQ+ civil rights group Equality Ohio praised the move, but condemned the remaining anti-LGBTQ+ provisions:
“Instead of weaponizing the budget for a culture war, our legislators should focus on building a state where everyone has access to quality education, decent jobs, and where healthcare is a right—not a privilege—where liberation and prosperity belong to all of us.”
Senate Democrats had introduced amendments to remove the anti-LGBTQ+ “culture war” language, but none of those amendments were successful.
‘A cruel distraction’: Ohio Senate Democrats move to eliminate proposed anti-LGBTQ+ items in state budget“Sadly the Republican majority has presented to the people of Ohio one more opportunity in the budget to continue the culture wars,” Senate Democratic Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said at a press conference in May.
The Ohio House voted not to concur, meaning they did not approve of the changes that the Senate made to the document since the House passed the budget in April.
Legislators will now meet in committees to agree on a document that can be sent to Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature by the end of June.
DeWine has the discretion to veto individual lines in the budget.
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Ken Schneck is the Editor of The Buckeye Flame. He received the 2021 Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for the LGBTQ Journalist of the Year from the NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists. He is the author of “Seriously, What Am I Doing Here? The Adventures of a Wondering and Wandering Gay Jew” (2017), “LGBTQ Cleveland” (2018), “LGBTQ Columbus” (2019), and “LGBTQ Cincinnati” (2020). In his spare time, he is a professor of education at Baldwin Wallace University.
