Ohio House rejects bill to ban transgender girls from female sports, overhaul public education

At 10 p.m. on the last day Ohio lawmakers plan to work this year, Senate Republicans combined two major pieces of legislation: Overhaul the Ohio Department of Education and ban transgender girls from playing on female sports teams in middle and high school.

House Bill 151 passed in June and banned transgender girls from playing on female sports teams in both high school and college. But it underwent a lot of changes by the time the Senate passed it 23 to 7 Wednesday night.

"These are the things that Speaker (Bob) Cupp said he wanted in the bill and so we put it in the bill ... ," Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said. "Everything that we changed in this bill was at the House's request. We did all the changes they asked and here we are."

But a combination of conservative Republicans and Democrats kept those changes from passing in the House around 2:30 a.m. Thursday.

The Senate added an amendment late to the House bill to gut the Ohio Department of Education and give more power to the governor over education policy.

"This is not the way to do education in the state of Ohio ... ," Rep. Phil Robinson, D-Solon, said. "Passing something at 1 or 2 in the morning that no one has read, that no one has seen."

The bill could go to a conference committee between the chambers to work out a deal before the General Assembly ends Dec. 31, but that is unlikely given the Legislature's plans to end its work this week.

Here is what the latest version of the bill would do:

Give the governor more control of public education

The largest part of HB 151 would have moved control of public education in Ohio from the State Board of Education and give it to the governor's office.

"This is the kind of bill that changes and will change for decades to become basic education policy in Ohio ... ," Huffman said earlier this month. "I think the time has come."

More:What to know about the plans for major changes in Ohio Department of Education

The legislation was originally a stand-alone bill known as Senate Bill 178, but it ran into trouble in the House. With time running out, Senate Republicans decided to put it into the transgender athletes bill, House Bill 151.

The amendment would rename the Ohio Department of Education as the Department of Education and Workforce and create a new director who would be appointed by the governor and then confirmed by the Senate within 45 days. The current leader of the department is the state superintendent who is chosen by the state education board.

The job would still exist but the bill would transfer most of the state board's and superintendent's responsibilities to that new director position.

The legislature could reverse any rule made by the new director through a concurrent resolution, and public schools couldn't require students to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

It also would exempt home school students from having to be tested or assessed by a certified teacher.

Transgender girls on female sports teams

Ember Zelch, 17, could still apply to catch for her softball team next spring, but other transgender girls wouldn't have the same opportunities going forward.

The Chagrin Falls senior is one of four transgender girls currently approved by the Ohio High School Athletic Association to compete on a female sports team this school year. The amended version of this bill would grandfather in the seniors for this academic year but ban all other players.

OHSAA requires at least one year of hormone therapy and bloodwork to prove testosterone levels have dropped below certain levels. And the girls have to re-apply every year. The organization has approved 15 transgender girls for female teams since 2015 and three at the high school level out of the about 400,000 student-athletes who play.

But HB 151 would change those rules by creating a blanket prohibition on transgender girls joining female sports teams in high school. The provision that applied to colleges and universities was removed.

The Senate also removed a controversial provision that would have required pelvic exams for any girl whose gender was questioned. But even with that change Ember Zelch and her mother Minna Zelch strongly opposed it.

Ember Zelch isn't pursuing a sports scholarship of any kind, and she thinks a lot of transgender girls are like her.

"There are two things I really get from playing softball and the biggest one is a community: a place to get to know people and really just relax after school," she said. "I don't think about life for a little bit."

She enjoys the exercise and being outside too. Sports, she said, are about a lot more than medals. Her mother added that she thinks Republicans are trying to "earn a few political points on the backs of our kids."

"If you really actually cared about girls' sports, maybe you could put your energy towards the fact that girls still don’t have fair facilities," Minna Zelch said. "My daughter plays on a field at the elementary school that floods every time there is a drop of rain while the boys have two beautiful new fields."

Editor's note: An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated Ember Zelch's eligibility for her softball team.

Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio House rejects limits on transgender athletes, education overhaul