Ohio Governor Signs Law Banning Opposite-Sex Access to School Bathrooms
Rep. Adam Bird said, “This legislation has always been about protecting students, and I think that’s something we should all be able to agree on.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill on Nov. 27 prohibiting students from kindergarten through college from using bathrooms that do not align with their sex.
Rep. Adam Bird (R-Ohio), who co-sponsored the bill titled “Protect All Students Act” with Rep. Beth Lear (R-Ohio), praised DeWine’s decision to sign the bill. He expressed gratitude that students will now not have to be concerned about students of the opposite sex coming into restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms in Ohio.
Bird mentioned that the law also applies to any place where school-sponsored activities are being held and will go into effect in February 2025.
“Institutions of higher education, including state universities, community and technical colleges, and both private nonprofit and for-profit career colleges, must use clear signage for these designations to ensure clarity for students and staff,” Bird explained.
He added that Ohio is the 14th state that passed privacy legislation for student bathrooms.
Rep. Adam Bird previously stated, “This legislation has always been about protecting students, and I think that’s something we should all be able to agree on. Many Ohioans don’t want their local schools to allow opposite-sex access to restrooms or locker rooms. The Protect All Students Act will provide clarity and a unified approach for school leaders statewide.”
DeWine didn’t comment on the signing of the bill.
In January, the Republican-led state Senate overrode DeWine’s veto of a bill that banned gender-altering surgeries and hormone therapies for children under 18, as well as prohibited students from playing on sports teams opposite their sex.
DeWine explained that he vetoed the legislation to prevent government overreach into parents’ medical decisions for their children.
So far, 26 states passed laws prohibiting transgender surgery for minors, while about 11 states have passed bathroom laws.
During the 2024 presidential election campaign, President-elect Donald Trump targeted Vice President Kamala Harris’s support for government-funded transgender surgeries for illegal immigrants and prisoners with two ads.
Some Democratic strategists have said that it might have been a more important issue than they previously thought going into the election.
“Obviously, it was a very effective ad in the end,” Quintin Fulks, one of Harris’s campaign managers, stated in an interview on the progressive podcast “Pod Save America.”
Fulks mentioned that the ad achieved two goals: it portrayed Harris as being out of touch with the American people, and it implied that citizens would be the ones paying for transgender surgeries.
