CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati transgender community center, Transform Cincy, has been preparing for the impact of legislation that has been moving through the Ohio Statehouse for months.
House Bill 68 would ban gender-affirming care for minors and prevent anyone not born female from participating in girls' sports in Ohio.
Tristan Vaught, Transform Cincy co-founder, said they fear the legislation banning gender-affirming care for minors could lead to young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria having increased complications.
"It's a sad space," Vaught said. "And this is why we continue to do the work, because that side, it doesn't look great."
Inside Transform Cincy, youth curious about their gender can experience alongside their families a safe place to explore their identity.
"They can take 15 to 20 outfits, shoes, accessories, free haircuts," Vaught said.
Vaught said if HB 68 passes, the services provided at the facility — all non-medical — would become more necessary for young people.
"It's a space to have community. It's a space to create identity, to explore identity, just to be," Vaught said.
Bill supporters testified to a Senate committee in late November that the gender-affirming care bans outlined in HB 68 — including certain mental health treatments, medication like puberty blockers and reassignment surgeries — would protect children in Ohio.
Matt Sharp with Alliance Defending Freedom testified before the government oversight committee as a proponent.
"This bill protects children. Children who deserve to have a natural childhood," Sharp said.
Others like Dr. David Bonnet testified that the science underlining gender-affirming care treatments, especially in the long-term, wasn't rock solid — leaving room for harm.
"The medical literature with respect to gender-affirming care is incomplete at best," Bonnet said.
Retired pediatrician and Ohio American Association of Pediatrics consultant Christopher Bolling pushed back on bill supporters. He said the science behind gender-affirming care is constantly developing the same way all medical research constantly develops.
"Medicine is constantly evolving," he said. "Our treatment for cancer today is different than it was six weeks ago."
Bolling said that underscored why gender-affirming care should be left up to kids, their parents and medical professionals to decide without interference from lawmakers.
"I think that we need to meet families and kids where they are, support them, and allow them time and space and support to figure things out," he said.
Vaught pledged to continue providing people a safe place to be who they are if the care bans are signed into law.
"We've always existed," Vaught said. "We've always navigated this, and there are other ways to get through it."
WCPO reached out to Gov. Mike DeWine's office to determine his support for the bill and whether he would sign HB 68, and was told the Governor has not yet issued a statement on the bill.
The House passed HB 68, and the Senate's Government Oversight Committee is scheduled to hear it for a fourth time Wednesday.
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