Area transgender residents react to looming gender affirming care ban
Spike in acute mental health problems among top concerns.
The Ohio Senate is expected to meet later this month and follow the House in overriding Gov. Mike Dewine’s veto of a bill that would prohibit transgender minors from undergoing gender affirming hormone treatments and surgeries in the state and ban transgender girls from participating in girls’ and women’s scholastic sports.
Transgender men and women from the Miami Valley — specifically those who began their medical transition when they were much older than 18 — told this news organization that they’re concerned about the impact taking away such medical treatments will have on a future generation of transgender Ohioans.
This includes Bobbie Arnold, a 43-year-old transgender woman in rural Preble County who started feminizing hormones in her mid-30s. Arnold said she would have jumped at the opportunity to have begun her transition earlier in life.
“Looking back, absolutely, I would have undergone this at the earliest age possible. I can just imagine how different my life would be — would have been — if I had had access to that at an earlier age,” Arnold said.
Arnold explained that eliminating the option of puberty blockers could be particularly harmful to transgender women, who, if forced to go through male puberty, could experience physical changes that would make it significantly harder “for them to be able to go through this life and blend with society.”
“The changes that we experience going through puberty, especially as transgender women, a lot of those changes cannot be undone later in life,” she said.
Arnold is a Democratic candidate for the Ohio House in a deep-red district currently represented by Rep. Rodney Creech, R-west Alexandria.
Creech, who voted in support of the legislation each of the three times it hit the House floor, told this news organization that his district is in “full support” of the legislation and said he was proud to represent his constituents’ interests with his votes.
“I would say that the adverse effects of the treatments probably
and flu season can also affect donors getting to a blood center.
He also said that anecdotally, donations at high schools are 20% less and workplaces and businesses are 20% to 30% less since the pandemic.
“We have an immediate need, and we are calling on the community for help,” said Tracy Morgan, Solvita vice president for donor services. “We anticipate demand to increase and collections at blood drives to become more challenging with the return of winter weather. We’re also concerned about the increasing impact of flu and other illness on the availability of donors.”
Red Cross officials also expressed worries about donations during winter and flu season.
Sarah Hackenbracht, CEO of the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association, said the local blood supply is being monitored, adding there is a low supply of Type O and a critically scarce supply of Type B-positive and B-negative blood.
“We’re looking to bolster the blood supply because of the low donations during the holiday season,” she said.
GDAHA represents 29 hospitals and medical facilities in the 11-county Dayton region who rely on Solvita for their blood supply. The organization encourages blood donations.
The Red Cross declared its first-ever blood crisis during a COVID surge in early 2022, calling that the worst shortage in over a decade, affecting hospitals’ ability to serve patients.
The pandemic contributed to donor decline, as more people missed blood drives, many of which were coordinated with local businesses, according to the Red Cross. Prior to that, hospital protocols and changes in eligibility — like minimum hemoglobin levels — had already challenged the nonprofit’s ability to keep a donor base.
January is National Blood Donor Awareness Month, first proclaimed in 1969. The Ohio General Assembly declared January Ohio Blood Donor Awareness Month in 2018.
The joint purpose is to honor donors and encourage more donations during the winter months when the holidays, severe weather and seasonal illness make it difficult to maintain a sufficient blood supply.