Ohio set to become 2nd state to restrict gender-affirming adult care

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced proposals this month transgender advocates say could block access to gender-affirming care provided by clinics and general practitioners, leaving thousands of adults scrambling for treatment.

Ashton Colby, 31, fears the clinic where he gets the testosterone he has taken since age 19 would no longer offer it. The transgender Columbus man believes he could eventually be treated by another provider that would meet the new requirements. But even a few months’ wait could leave Colby experiencing a menstrual cycle for the first time in many years.

“My mental health has been stressed,” Colby said. “These are feelings related to being transgender ... I have not felt in years, but now I’m ... feeling devastated about my experience as a transgender person.”

DeWine announced the proposed rules amid a whirl of activity that could push Ohio further than most other states in controlling gender-affirming care and make it the second to set restrictions on adult care.

He also signed an executive order to ban gender affirming surgery for minors but vetoed a bill that would ban all gender-affirming care for minors. One chamber of the state legislature has overridden it and the other is voting Jan. 24 on whether to do so.

“It is a policy project that attempts to make it so ... restrictive to get care, that people are ... unable to do so,” said Kellan Baker, executive director of the Whitman-Walker Institute, a Washington-based organization focused on the health of LGBTQ+ people.

The policies focused on care for adults come in draft rules released by the Ohio Department of Health and the state’s Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

They would require psychiatrists ... and medical ethicists to have roles in creating facility-wide gender-affirming care plans for patients of all ages.

Patients under 21 would have to receive at least six months of mental health counseling before starting gender-affirming procedures. Providers would be barred from referring minors to treatment elsewhere.

When he announced the measures, DeWine said they would ensure safe treatment and make it impossible to operate “fly-by-night” clinics.