Ohio has real priorities. Attacking trans kids is not one of them | Opinion

Despite their efforts to kneecap our democracy and hold us hostage to draconian abortion laws, lawmakers could not control the reproductive rights of Ohioans last year. More than two million Ohio residents rallied, petitioned and voted to send the message that we deserve full control over our bodies and our medical decisions, enshrining new freedoms into our state constitution.

While anti-choice extremists have suffered loss after loss at the ballot box, they are nowhere near ceasing their attacks. After coming for our abortion rights, those extremists are now targeting children − trans children.

Just last week, the Ohio House voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of House Bill 68, legislation that would ban transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming medical care, and prevent transgender girls from taking part in girls' and women's sports. The Senate will vote next, which will determine whether the veto is officially overridden. This is just one of four bills introduced last year with the explicit intention of harming Ohio’s trans youth. Right here in our legislature, elected officials introduced this new wave of transphobia aiming to prevent transgender youth from a safe and healthy life.

Despite the outcry from those most impacted by the proposed laws, a troubling number of legislators insist on pressing forward to push trans people further and further into the margins of our society. Excluding trans children from schools, sports teams, or other educational opportunities not only violates the constitutional right to equal protection, but also denies them the chance to learn and thrive alongside their peers. This is not only disappointing − it’s dangerous.

Instead of reinforcing discriminatory practices, we should be championing policies that uphold the rights of every individual, regardless of their gender identity, and provide avenues to improve our daily lives. And we look to our elected officials to lead the charge – not introduce policies that harm us and prevent us from making our own decisions about our own bodies.

While the connection might not be obvious, trans rights and reproductive rights are interconnected through the shared principles of bodily autonomy, non-discrimination and the right to make your own medical decisions.

Reproductive rights focus on the right to access contraception, abortion and comprehensive health care related to reproductive organs, but also extend to the right to build a family, whether through assisted reproductive technologies, adoption, or other means.

For trans people, this involves addressing barriers to gender-affirming healthcare, fertility preservation and family-building options that respect their identities. It is not possible to protect reproductive rights without also protecting the rights of transgender people.

It’s no coincidence that since the Dobbs decision, over a dozen bans on gender-affirming care have gone into effect nationwide, and many more of these kinds of attacks are anticipated in Ohio and across the country this year, leaving trans youth vulnerable to devastating mental, physical and psychological consequences.

Taking away the constitutional right to an abortion has opened the floodgates to an onslaught of invasions of our bodily autonomy, and lawmakers wasted no time using the same playbook from the anti-abortion agenda to enact egregious anti-trans bills. From states banning gender-affirming care, to criminalizing transgender people, and requiring youth to transition back, there is no limit to how far transphobic extremists will go.

What these lawmakers fail to understand is that anti-abortion and anti-trans laws are deeply unpopular with Americans. Time and time again, Americans have shown that they want abortion rights and for politicians to stop attacking the trans community. So, why aren’t our laws reflecting the will of the people? By acting in direct opposition to what their constituents want, It’s clear that these lawmakers have agendas of their own. They are not serving us and our interests – they are serving themselves and their interests.

Rather than continuing to dictate what Ohioans should and should not do with our most personal health care decisions, we must develop comprehensive LGBTQ inclusive sexual health information in our state-funded programs so that Ohio residents are equipped to make the best medical decisions for our bodies. Our laws must include a thorough and respectful understanding of sexual health that encompasses the full spectrum of experiences and identities – not create division and miseducation. The time to act is now.

We do have real problems in this state, but trans youth are not one of them. It is heartbreaking and cruel for Ohio’s trans youth to live in fear of what tomorrow holds. It is time for our representatives in Columbus to listen to Ohio voters repeatedly telling them to leave our bodies alone and do the job we elected them to do.

Ainslee Johnson-Brown is the Ohio Policy and Movement Building Director at URGE: Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio has real priorities. Attacking trans kids is not one of them | Opinion