Session ends with strike at trans women

Ohio’s House and state Senate have gone home to campaign for renomination (at the Aug. 2 primary election) and re-election (at Nov. 8’s general election).

All 99 Ohio House seats, and half the Senate’s 33, will be on November’s ballot. Republicans, led by House Speaker Robert Cupp, of Lima, run the House 64-35. And led by Senate President Matt Huffman, also of Lima, Republicans run the Senate, too — 25-8. Both of those majorities are veto-proof. (It takes 60 House votes to override a governor’s veto, 20 Senate votes.

Before legislators left Capitol Square for home, did they fully repeal House Bill 6 of 2019, the electric company bonanza rammed through the legislature by thenspeaker Larry Householder?

Householder is the Perry County Republican who is now under indictment on federal corruption charges (and be it remembered, was elected House speaker in 2019 with the help of the votes of 26 House Democrats).

Nope: A key and pricey part of House Bill 6 still remains in effect: That part of the bill forces Ohio electricity customers to bail out two money-losing, coal-burning power plants, one in Indiana.

The cost, so far, to Ohio electricity customers of that sweetheart deal? Almost $288,000 dollars a day, for a cumulative total of almost $258 million — and counting — the Ohio Office of Consumers’ Counsel reports. What Ohio’s electric utilities want at the Statehouse, they get — and keep on getting.

And did the Senate or the House do anything meaningful about the gun plague that has ended so many innocent lives? Dream on. If anything, the legislature, and Republican Gov. Mike Dewine, widened the guns-andammo floodgate with a no-permit concealed-carry law. That and platitudes are all Ohioans can expect to see or hear about firearms massacres.

But no General Assembly session would be complete without the passage of at least one nasty swipe aimed at LGBTQ Ohioans. And Cupp’s House didn’t disappoint.

On the Ohio House session’s last night, via an amendment by Rep. Jena Powell, a Republican from Darke County’s Arcanum, the House amended an otherwise routine bill (House Bill 151) so that, if the Senate agrees, potential K-12 and college athletes (if their gender is challenged) would have to “establish” their sex via a physician’s statement.

The physician’s statement could hinge on any or all of three procedures the bill lists, including examination of “the participant’s internal and external reproductive anatomy.” A more startling governmental intrusion into Ohioans’ personal lives is hard to imagine.

The amendment’s supposed aim is to prevent transgender women (people identified as male when born, who later transition to female gender identity) from competing with cisgender women (people identified as female at birth).

Ostensibly, that’s to shield cisgender female athletes from unfair competition by transgender females. In fact, the amendment is another divisive measure designed to rattle right-wing cages. It’s a solution in search of a problem, but one that could boost GOP turnout, as supposedly Ohio’s 2004 ban on gay marriage did in that year’s presidential contest. (It didn’t, but pols think otherwise.)

To Dewine’s great credit, when a somewhat similar brainstorm was in play last year, he said, “This issue is best addressed outside of government, through individual sports leagues and athletic associations, including the Ohio High School Athletic Association, who can tailor policies to meet the needs of their member athletes and member institutions.”

The House bill with its anti-transgender amendment passed 57-30, with 50 “yes” votes required. Among those voting “yes”: Central Ohio Republican Reps. Jay Edwards, of Nelsonville; Mark Fraizer, of Newark; Kris Jordan, of Ostrander; Darrell Kick, of Loudonville; Jeff Lare, of Canal Winchester; Tracy Richardson, of Marysville; Shawn Stevens, of Sunbury; and Brian Stewart, of Ashville.

Voting “no” were all Democrats present and GOP Rep. Brett Hudson Hillyer, of Uhrichsville.

So, inflation-squeezed Ohioans, take heart: Your legislature won’t do a thing about bloated electric bills — but, hey, when it comes to trans Ohioans, the General Assembly has you covered.

Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com