December 30, 2023
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With sincere apologies to any Buckeyes fans who might be mourning yesterday’s loss in the Cotton Bowl, I’m feeling compelled to write about Ohio. Also yesterday, (Republican) Governor Mike DeWine vetoed HB 68, which would have: (1) protected vulnerable children from harmful hormones and surgeries and (2) maintained single-sex sports in Ohio schools.
As usual, the media generally describes HB 68 as a “ban on gender-affirming care and transgender athletes in girls’ sports.” For the media to use the phrase “gender-affirming care” unquestioningly is appalling. The phrase refers to a regimen that is known to cause sterility, osteoporosis, loss of sexual function, and other long-term health problems. Investigative journalist Gerald Posner calls it “bordering on child abuse.” Earlier this year, nearby Tennessee banned it, finding that:
[M]edical procedures that alter a minor's hormonal balance, remove a minor's sex organs, or otherwise change a minor's physical appearance are harmful to a minor when these medical procedures are performed for the purpose of enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor's sex or treating purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor's sex and asserted identity. These procedures can lead to the minor becoming irreversibly sterile, having increased risk of disease and illness, or suffering from adverse and sometimes fatal psychological consequences. Moreover, the legislature finds it likely that not all harmful effects associated with these types of medical procedures when performed on a minor are yet fully known, as many of these procedures, when performed on a minor for such purposes, are experimental in nature and not supported by high-quality, long-term medical studies.
In September, the Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit found, in a case called L.W. v. Skrmetti, that Tennessee’s law complies with the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the 14th Amendment (the U.S. chapter of Women’s Declaration International filed an amicus brief in the case, encouraging it to do so). The Supreme Court is currently deciding whether to review the case. Ohio is also in the 6th Circuit, so any legal challenge to HB 68 would presumably survive a Constitutional challenge.
When the media refers to “transgender athletes,” what it means is “men and boys.” They ought to just say that.
Anyway, back to Ohio …
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