Trans people being told to flee Ohio, now one of nations top transphobic states

Therapist Lily Cunningham (they/them) received their master's in education from Cleveland State University in 2013.

I refuse to practice as a licensed mental health professional in a state that outlaws ethical treatment; which is exactly what Gov. Mike DeWine did by asking the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to do.

In December 2022, I wrote a Dispatch guest column about the importance of providing gender-affirming care from the perspective of a therapist licensed in Ohio. Last year, I've decided to let my counseling license lapse.

DeWine spent the last four years since COVID-19 lockdown being praised for being a common-sense Republican, only to replace the former head of OMAS with his former chief-of-staff and tell her to write rules banning gender-affirming care.

This is a matter of life or death

Death by suicide and attempts to die by suicide are greater for transgender individualswhen they live in place that is inherently hostile to more than two genders.

This isn't noted just the definition of gender dysphoria found in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, 5th Edition;" psychiatric research has verified for years that having acceptance of gender variance decreases risk of suicidal behaviors, thoughts, and actions. It also decreases anxiety, depression, and other diagnoses.

Lily Cunningham: 'Gender-affirming care is ethical practice.' Bill would put bigotry over science

DeWine's decision-making is reckless, undemocratic, and a blatant abuse of power.

Protective factors for decreasing youth mental health symptoms include school, peer, and familial support.

DeWine's Jan. 5 press conference and announcement, if enacted, will be a catastrophic loss of quality mental-healthcare for the whole state.

I'll reiterate the point from my 2022 piece, transphobic law is evidence-based harm, not treatment, making it dehumanizing of a specific population.

This should concern every single person in Ohio. It should also concern us all that OMAS has not once pushed back on this public declaration. I am personally disappointed beyond words at the silence from mental health professionals directly ordered to enforce unethical treatment here in Ohio.

The UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech defines hate speech as discrimination in any form of communication based on religion, gender, race, and other factors.

How are individual, ethical, mental and medical providers supposed to live under these ridiculous and overreaching circumstances? Expecting professionals to suddenly go against our professional ethics because of law is unprecedented, undemocratic, and unacceptable.

Ohio now the one of most prejudiced in the nation for trans people

It's taken almost two years for the special interest group the Center for Christian Virtue to write and push these bills by proxy through the Ohio legislature, which is no secret.

This documented hate group has a history of demonizing homosexuals going into the last century. The conflation of "sexual morality" based on their ideals are not to be imposed on the whole populace of Ohio.

More: Center for Christian Virtue protecting its own misguided, views instead of Ohio kids

All Ohioans deserve a better representation of government. All of us deserve humanity and the autonomy to choose our own healthcare, and to practice our professions ethically, and live to pursue happiness.

The public commenting for the proposed rules is over.

The Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, Marriage and Family Therapist Board t impacts licensing of mental health professionals.

How would legal unethical practice impact their work, is a question I have, because the potential ripple effect of this is a population of transphobic, discriminatory, legally-practicing professionals in a state hostile to trans lives.

This will no-doubt most severely disrupt the quality-of-life for Black and Indigenous trans youth most. All of this is unacceptable.

I can't imagine the State Board of Mental Health, which manages all six current state mental hospitals, being in charge of discriminatory legislation. This pushes mental health in America back by about 200 years: and I will personally have no part in this directly.

It's unacceptable any individual should be in this position professionally. Stopping all transphobic attempts to legitimize discrimination must stop completely and immediately.

Families and individuals who are living in Ohio and impacted the most are now faced with self-directed changes to what our futures are supposed to be. The state government has abandoned us, time and again.

The overall message which is taken by Republican conservatives as a win, is the public humiliation and legal designation of, us trans people as less human, less American, and no longer welcome in Ohio.

Leaving the state, voting, championing for more freedom, each individual trans person who is able to leave Ohio, is being encouraged to do so indirectly or directly by legislators and public policy.

And whether trans people and families who leave will, shall remain in history when it’s recorded that, in 2024, Ohio became one of the most prejudiced states in the nation for trans people to exist in.

Sign the Change.org petition to encourage a complete and immediate stop to government-controlling healthcare in Ohio.

Therapist Lily Cunningham (they/them) received their master's in education from Cleveland State University in 2013.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio one of nation's most prejudiced states. Trans people not welcomed.