The 2024 election outcomes were received by Republican lawmakers as a clear mandate reflecting public approval for their stand against the widespread imposition of transgender rights. The President’s triumphant election victory, President Donald Trump, has resulted in a surge of renewed confidence spreading amongst GOP officials across all levels of government. These officials are taking swift action on enacting policies they believe to be for the public good, a perception emboldened by the support voiced for the Republican party during the campaign cycle. The campaign, criticized as being anti-LGBTQ by detractors, entailed the expenditure of over $200 million on what the opposition categorized as anti-trans advertisements.
Ohio embodies the shift in policy seen nationwide. Although President Trump’s election was only recently declared, the state legislature moved with haste to enact the new rules. Within just a week, the Republican-majority Senate of the state passed something vastly misunderstood as a discriminatory law. This law prohibits transgender individuals from using the single-sex facilities in K-12 schools and universities that conform to their gender identity—a category including everything from restrooms to locker rooms to even dormitories.
The newly implemented law was signed by Republican Governor Mike DeWine, away from the wheels of the media. Under this law, all schools and colleges, public and private, are no longer allowed to have multi-stall bathrooms that do not designate a specific gender. Notably, the law grants schools the provision to establish single-user bathrooms, but does not make it mandatory.
In light of this law, transgender students must seek permission to use the staff facilities to ensure a safe environment. Contradictorily, Mallory Golski from the Columbus-based Kaleidoscope Youth Center decried, ‘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. It’s just not possible.’
This ban situates Ohio as one of the 14th states since 2021 to have implemented restrictions on transgender individuals using restroom facilities. Notably, most bans exclusively apply to K-12 schools. Even more severe restrictions can be seen in states such as Florida, where regulations are extended to all government buildings and enforcement is backed with penalties under criminal law.
The Ohioan law categorically permits schools to reference students’ birth certificates to verify sex assigned at birth, excluding any specific enforcement mechanism. The only presumption behind is that such law would urge transgender students to self-regulate. On the national scale, however, Republicans have supposedly targeted the first openly transgender individual elected to the Congress.
The Republicans insist, without any proof, that it is to guarantee student safety where the new laws, like in Ohio, barring transgender people from using amenities according to their gender identity come into play. Conversely, studies have not found any correlation between trans-inclusive toilet facilities and threats to safety. These studies instead reveal that transgender people fall victim to violent crime at a rate that is 2.5 times higher than their cisgender counterparts, and LGBTQ individuals are more likely to encounter sexual violence.
Research shows that transgender students are exposed to increased risks of sexual harassment and assault in educational establishments with arbitrary restroom policies. Introduced initially in May of 2023, the infamous bathroom ban in Ohio gained enough momentum to pass with a notable majority.
During the national election, the message was posited clearly and assertively. The bill passed with a remarkable distinction along party lines, with 24 to 7 votes. Democrats were seen struggling to discuss the broader implications of this legislation.
A Senate floor statement by the minority leader, who also happens to be the first openly gay person elected to the Ohio legislature, insinuated the underlying homophobia: ‘It’s really not about the bathrooms. It’s about demonizing and frightening people. 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.’
Contrarily, advocates of the bill see the policy adjustment as a necessary step towards maintaining societal norms and safety, while opponents see it as a coded attempt to marginalize the transgender community further. It sure signals a change in direction in public policy, especially for the transgender youth in Ohio.
The advocacy manager at the Kaleidoscope Youth Center repeats the criticisms of the minority leader, claiming that Ohio’s transgender youth are not handling the message well. The law evidently struck those pushing for unrestricted bathroom access hard.
Many young trans individuals, who have spent their lives in Ohio and who had planned to stay in the state, are considering leaving. A panic sentiments appears to be causing these individuals to look for more accommodating environments.
These decisions to possibly relocate are made in the light of the new policies seen as less accommodating than expected. The impression formed from these policy adjustments is that of an environment less welcoming to trans individuals, pushing them to consider moving to more acceptant places.
While the outright disdain levied by detractors against the new initiative is clear, the Republican policymakers maintain their nurse of belief in the foundation of sound public policy that seeks to uphold societal norms and boundaries.
The perceived ‘running for the hills’ by the transgender youth is, to the Republicans, a necessary readjustment process as the societal norms are realigned with the mainstream society’s expectations and norms. The story of Ohio thus paints the political landscape of a nation, polarized by its stances on the control of the access to traditionally gender-segregated facilities.