Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)

Critics say Ohio Gov. restrictin­g trans care

Proposed measures impact adults, minors

- By Geoff Mulvihill

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

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 that I have not felt in years, but now I’m thrown into feeling devastated about my experience as a transgende­r person.”

Dewine 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.

“It is a policy project that attempts to make it so onerous, so restrictiv­e to get care, that people are functional­ly 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 would require psychiatri­sts, endocrinol­ogists 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 medication or surgery. Providers would be barred from referring minors to treatment elsewhere, such as clinics in other states.

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

The rules are not intended to stop treatment for those already receiving it and are in line with the way specialize­d care is generally practiced, even if the approach isn’t always state-mandated, said Dewine spokespers­on Dan Tierney.

Still, advocates say those rules go beyond the standard of care establishe­d by organizati­ons including the World Profession­al Associatio­n for Transgende­r Health, and at any rate there are no sketchy gender clinics in the state.

“It’s bad and unnecessar­y bureaucrac­y, and we know what they’re trying to do — and they’re hoping to cut off health care for as many people as possible,” said Dara Adkison, board secretary for the advocacy group Transohio. “It’s not subtle.”

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