COLUMBUS, Ohio – An Ohio House panel advanced a bill that would allow parents to object to sexuality content in schools, including instruction that includes “gender ideology,” and require notifying parents when a student requests to identify as a gender that doesn’t align with their “biological sex.”
House Bill 8, a bill the Republican cosponsors are calling “The Parents’ Bill of Rights,” passed the Ohio House Primary and Secondary Education Committee Tuesday, largely along party lines, and was expected on the House floor Wednesday. But Republican leaders put the bill on hold at least until next week.
When the bill was introduced, the focus of HB 8 was on “sexually explicit” content. But an amendment introduced last week changed “sexually explicit” to “sexuality” content – and added “gender ideology” to the definition of sexuality content. Furthermore, the amendment said parents must be notified if their child asks to identify with a gender that’s not the one of their birth.
Nothing in the bill grants parents any new authority, said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. D.J. Swearingen of Huron.
“This is a common sense bill that simply acknowledges the fundamental role that parents play in the life of their children,” he said. “It is statistically undeniable that when parents are involved in their kids’ lives, kids’ succeed. When Ohio kids succeed, then Ohio’s future is bright.”
The bill comes ahead of the 2024 election, as Republicans are rallying some voters around their unease about transgender rights and have been harnessing anger at public schools since the pandemic-related closures, and mask, quarantine and vaccination requirements.
Eighteen states have seen similar legislation in 2023, according to a late March tally by the Christian Science Monitor. In 2022, there were also dozens of bills in state legislatures. On the federal level, the U.S. House passed a Parents Bill of Rights bill, although the legislation isn’t expected to move in the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate, and is opposed by President Joe Biden.
In Ohio, HB 8 would require traditional public school districts, charter schools and STEM or science, technology, engineering and math schools, to provide parents with a notice about sexuality content and disclose to parents any instructional materials that include sexuality content. Students can be excused from that content and permitted to take an alternative class.
If a school district doesn’t resolve a parent’s written concern within 30 days, the parent can request a hearing before the school board, under the bill.
When the bill was introduced in mid-February, it said parents were to receive notification on “sexually explicit content.” But last week, a House committee changed that phrase to “sexuality content,” and included “gender ideology” in its definition.
Sexuality content, according to the bill, is “oral or written instruction, presentation, image, or description of sexual concepts or gender ideology.”
Last week’s amendment also specified that sexuality content doesn’t mean venereal disease education and sexual abuse and violence prevention education that’s required under Ohio law.
In addition to requiring notification of sexuality content, the bill states parents must be notified when there are changes to the student’s mental, emotional or physical health or well-being, which includes the following:
- A request by a student to identify as a gender that does not align with the student’s biological sex. The bill defines biological sex as “the biological indication of male and female, including sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, gonads, and unambiguous internal and external genitalia present at birth, without regard to an individual’s psychological, chosen, or subjective experience of gender.”
- Changes in academic performance.
- Any sickness, physical injury or psychological trauma suffered by a student.
- Any pattern of bullying or harassment.
- A student exhibiting suicidal thoughts or persistent symptoms of depression, severe anxiety or other mental health issues.
The bill also contains a statement saying, “The General Assembly maintains that a parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s child.”
“I’m worried this is amendment is not so much about the content of what teachers are educating students on, but more so an outing of students when they don’t fit the mold,” Rep. Jessica Miranda, a Cincinnati-area Democrat, said last week.
While the bill addresses concerns parents may have about their kids identifying with a different gender than the one of their birth, TransOhio’s board is concerned about discrimination, harassment, students running away from home and other potential harms the policy could cause transgender students. The transgender rights organization said in written testimony Tuesday that HB 8 doesn’t protect students from these issues. All of Tuesday’s testimony was taken in writing.
“Ohio educators are generally not experts in childhood psychology and cannot diagnose students with gender dysphoria,” TransOhio’s statement said. “And they shouldn’t be. Even if a student shares their trans identity with a teacher, that is no reason to contact parents. Sharing this deeply personal information without consent from the student can be traumatizing and even dangerous.”
Cynthia Peeples, the founding director for Honesty in Ohio Education, a coalition of teachers’ unions, the NAACP and other groups that are fighting conservative ideologies in public schools, noted that the vast majority of people who testified on the bill opposed it.
“We’re very concerned about the speed at which House Bill 8 is being fast tracked out of committee,” she said. “We’re doubly concerned about the recent amendment that doubles down on targeting LGBTQ+ students, essentially creating a forced outing bill.”
The ACLU of Ohio’s Gary Daniels argued before the committee that school needs to be a safe place for students.
“Why would a pregnant student go to the school nurse for morning sickness knowing that information must be reported to a parent who will then kick them out of the house?” he said.
Laura Hancock covers state government and politics for The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com.