My alma mater Oberlin, and all schools and colleges in Ohio (private schools and colleges included) is going to be forced to ban trans students from using bathrooms aligned with their gender.
The Ohio legislature just passed House Bill 183, a ban on colleges allowing trans students to use bathrooms designated for their gender – that is, trans women can’t legally use women’s rooms, and trans men can’t legally use men’s rooms.
The Ohio legislature has successfully overturned vetos on anti-trans bills before, so it’s unlikely the governor can successfully veto this. (And he might not want to.)
Making the bill even more spiteful, it also bans multi-gender or “anyone can use” bathrooms.
The only loophole this leaves for Oberlin, as far as I can tell, is that building “family” bathrooms that aren’t multi-occupancy (which I think means, they can only have one toilet) is still permitted.
But even if Oberlin and other colleges build plentiful “family bathrooms” so trans students always have a nearby bathroom to use – and most colleges won’t do that, I suspect – it’s still an assault on trans people’s dignity, just like having segregated bathrooms was an assault on Black people’s dignity.
To quote a well known cartoonist: Well, this sucks!
It’s a ban on trans students using the correct bathroom at ALL SCHOOLS in the state, public or private, not just colleges if my quick scan of the bill is correct.
Yes, you’re right.
I wonder how this can be limited to schools and pass legal muster. Like, could they make the same law but only for gas stations? Would that be legal?
@JSO – it almost certainly has to do with funding sources. “Receives funding from the state education budget” or the like. Or with licensing – “provides services subject to the state Dept of Education regulations” yadda yadda.
@Elusis,
Here’s the bill. I didn’t spot anything that said “receives funding from…” what I saw was “all schools.” But my brain isn’t what it used to be and I very well might have missed that. If anyone’s curious, here’s the pdf of the bill.
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I think the real reason is that they just want to attack schools. They view private (non-Christian, at least) schools as part of the Woke Education System, whereas private gas stations are part of the Koch Brothers’ virtuous free market business.
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Obviously they have not thought this through. What happens as trans people walk into a bathroom of their birth gender dressed as they see themselves? Oh no, there’s a woman in the men’s room, there’s a man in the women’s room.
Of course, there will be those who will immediately start in on these people while in the bathroom.
This is some real nasty uploading to society by these really nasty, selfish, ignorant people.
Hear that Ohioans? You gotta designate the “womens” and “mens” bathrooms in your homes now!
Sucks if you have just one!
They get shamed, excluded, bullied, attacked, punished, terrorized, or prosecuted for not conforming to gender expectations (at least more so than already is the case).
I think the people passing this law have “thought this through.” All the cruel horrific potential outcomes entailed by this law are a feature, not a bug.
And now the Republicans want the same for the Capitol restrooms.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/19/sarah-mcbride-congress-bathroom-bill-transgender
@Megalodon: They’ve made it clear that their first target is trans Americans. They’ll get to that mass deportation stuff when they’ve actually taken over the Executive. I don’t doubt that we’ll see another racist act like the “Muslim Ban” of 2017 immediately after January 20th, either.
Great response to the Mace bill by AOC (video at link).
DeWine has signed the Ohio bill into law.
https://apnews.com/article/transgender-students-bathroom-ohio-3fe7c4d9178c17c97a64103d79668df0
https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/ohio-governor-signs-bill-restricting-trans-students-school-bathroom-rcna180410
I’m pretty sure they would have overridden his veto anyway but, yeah, there’s no question who they’re coming after first. We can use all the help resisting that we can get.
You’re probably right. But the fact that DeWine just signed it anyway seems like a signal that he doesn’t think this is worth even token resistance anymore and is just business as usual now.
And it looks like the right-wing majority on the supreme court is ready and eager to uphold trans healthcare bans.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-tackles-state-bans-treatments-transgender-youth-rcna182517
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/04/supreme-court-transgender-rights-case/
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/scotus-transgender-care-ban-12-04-24/index.html