Contact: MD Sitzes, Communications Manager
Equality Ohio
media@equalityohio.org

Columbus, OH – June 26, 2024 At nearly 11 pm on Wednesday evening, on the last session day before their summer recess, extremists in the Ohio legislature added an anti-LGBTQ+ amendment into Senate Bill 104 on the House floor. The last-minute amendment places l a bathroom ban for transgender people in schools K-12 through Higher Education into an unrelated bill related to the College Credit Plus program. Equality Ohio condemns the surprise passage of this discriminatory legislation, which undermines the dignity and rights of transgender and gender diverse Ohioans. 

“Across races, backgrounds, and genders, we all deserve the dignity of safely existing in public life and using the most basic of public accommodations. Today, we saw extremists in the General Assembly resort to eleventh-hour back door legislative efforts to ensure that transgender and gender expansive Ohioans are stripped of this fundamental decency,” said Morgan Zickes, public policy manager at Equality Ohio. “This is the latest of their desperate efforts to advance a deeply unpopular and discriminatory agenda that Ohioans do not want or need. We will never stop defending transgender and gender expansive communities across our state.”

The amendment to SB 104 bans transgender and gender diverse people from using restrooms and other facilities aligned with their identities in schools and at universities in Ohio. This bill impacts both youth and adults. Bathrooms and overnight accommodations in all university or school related facilities are included in this bill, including stadiums and school-sanctioned field trips.

Like cisgender girls, transgender college students are victims of sexual assault and harrassment at an alarmingly high rate. 20.3% of transgender college students reported being sexually assaulted, compared to 20.4% of cisgender women in college. HB 183, and now SB 104, only serves to exacerbate these incidents.

The amendment was proposed by Representatives Adam Bird and Beth Lear, the original sponsors of the bathroom ban. Ultimately, the amended SB 104 passed the House in a 60- 31 vote, and now heads back to the Ohio Senate, who will revisit the bill for a concurrent vote when they return from summer recess. 

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About Equality Ohio: Equality Ohio is a statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization dedicated to achieving lived and legal equality for LGBTQ+ Ohioans.