LGBT activists lean on Ohio Gov. DeWine to veto Republican bill protecting parental rights

Ohio Republicans successfully passed the Parents' Bill of Rights on the final day of the 135 General Assembly. The bill is now headed to Ohio's Republican governor for ratification.

The usual suspects, enraged by the prospect of increased parental involvement and greater transparency about what children are subjected to at school, are demanding that Gov. Mike DeWine veto the bill. While DeWine demonstrated last December his willingness to spike conservative legislation in the face of pressure from LGBT activists and other radicals, he appears resolved to hold his ground this time around.

The parental rights bill, HB 8, declares that "a parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent's child." It would broadly require school districts in the state to adopt policies promoting parental involvement in the public school system.

To the apparent chagrin of LGBT activists and other radicals, HB 8 would:

• require that any "sexuality content is age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate for the age of the student receiving the instruction";
• provide parents the opportunity to review in advance any instructional material that deals with sex or sexuality and to opt their child out if so desired;
• require prompt parental notification of any substantial changes in a child's services at school, such as counseling services or monitoring "related to the student's mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being," including requests by a student to identify as a member of the opposite sex;
• ensure that schools cannot inhibit parental access to their kids' education and health records;
• altogether bar school district personnel from encouraging kids to keep information from their parents;
• require school boards to adopt a policy authorizing students to be excused from school to attend a course in religious instruction off school property so long as their parents sign off, arrange transportation, and cover related expenses; and
• require parents to sign off before providing any type of health care service to a student with the exception to emergency situations, first aid, and other services required under state law.

After the bill passed the state Senate on Wednesday in a 24-7 vote, lawmakers in the House voted 57-31 to concur with state Senate amendments to the bill.

In the state Senate, all opposed were Democrats save for one Republican, state Sen. Louis Blessing III. In the state House, Republican state Reps. Jamie Callender, Gayle Manning, and Andrew White joined Democrats in voting against concurrence with the Senate changes to the bill.

DeWine has 10 days to ratify or veto the bill after receiving it.

State Rep. D.J. Swearingen, one of the bill's primary sponsors, noted on X, "This is a win for Ohio's families!"

'Planned Parenthood employees in Ohio public schools [are] disappointed today because they can no longer talk to 8-year-olds about their sexual orientation and gender identity.'

Various non-straight organizations and leftist groups melted down over the successful passage of the bill.

The ACLU of Ohio dubbed HB 8 the "unsafe students act" and demanded that DeWine veto it, complaining that restrictions on content pertaining to sexuality "would potentially put students' safety at serious risk, particularly LGBTQ+ students, and eviscerate the trusted relationships between students and their teachers." The leftist outfit also concern-mongered about the proposed requirement that districts permit students to leave school grounds with parental permission to attend religious classes, suggesting that those who remained at school with fully secular course loads might be bullied.

The Kaleidoscope Youth Center, a minor-targeted LGBT outfit in the state, similarly called on DeWine to veto the legislation, claiming in a statement Thursday that the bill "will make schools less safe and inclusive for queer and trans people."

In its call for a veto, the transvestite activist group TransOhio claimed HB 8 "is a forced outing bill and a harmful curriculum restriction bill" that discriminates against non-straight parents.

Equality Ohio, another LGBT activist organization keen on continued secrecy, likened HB 8 to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' Parental Rights in Education Act but suggested that it "goes even further than its counterpart in Florida by mandating students be reported to their parents if any school employee receives a request from a student to identify as a different gender than they were assigned at birth."

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, the Ohio Center for Sex Education, Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, and the leftist Ohio Education Association, a state-level affiliate of the National Education Association, also fear-mongered about the bill.

Such groups might suspect that DeWine could be receptive to their demands because he previously vetoed a critical piece of conservative legislation in the face of a similar pressure campaign. Republican lawmakers had to override his veto to make the Saving Adolescents from Experimentation Act the law of the land, protecting children from sex-change mutilations and keeping men out of women's sports.

However, DeWine has indicated he favors the bill and intends to sign it, reported the Statehouse News Bureau.

"We've been looking at the language, and I've had some suggestions and changes that I wanted to make or additions I wanted to make," DeWine said earlier this month. "I think the additions that I think will be made by the legislature will provide so that I will be able to sign the bill."

"The days of the ACLU and the most fringe voices on the left driving the political debate in America are over. The age of powerful parent voices is here," Aaron Baer, the president of the Center for Christian Virtue, said in a statement. "The CCV-backed Parents' Bill of Rights, which includes important provisions to protect programs like LifeWise Academy and religious released time, tells government bureaucrats across Ohio that parents are in charge of their kids' education and health care decisions."

"And for the Planned Parenthood employees in Ohio public schools disappointed today because they can no longer talk to 8-year-olds about their sexual orientation and gender identity, I have one message: It's probably time to find a new line of work," added Baer.

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