Just before 2023 ended, Mike DeWine, the Republican governor of Ohio, disappointed his state.
On the last Friday of the year, Governor DeWine vetoed the SAFE Act, a bill sent to him with clear majorities in both houses of the Ohio general assembly. The bill banned so-called gender-affirming therapies and surgeries for minors, and forbade athletes from participating in sports as their asserted gender identity, in defiance of their actual sex.
DeWine’s rationale was dubious, as we observed at the time. He applied a hands-off approach to these procedures that was notably absent in other executive actions he had taken. He failed to recognize the special interest the state has in protecting children from harm. And he ignored how other nations, even in progressive Europe, have recognized the damage transgenderism has wrought. Fortunately, Ohio’s legislature succeeded where DeWine failed and overrode his veto.
At this moment, another bill of this kind sits on the governor’s desk, awaiting his signature. S.B. 104, the Protect All Students Act, began in the Ohio house as H.B. 183, where it passed at the end of June. It mandates that public and chartered nonpublic schools, educational service centers, and colleges maintain sex-separated multi-occupancy restrooms, locker rooms, and overnight accommodation facilities. It would preclude the entry of a man who identifies as a woman (and vice versa) into those spaces. It is a “bathroom bill” of the sort that codifies a long-obvious truth, yet has occasioned controversy all the same from those at the commanding heights of our culture who have pushed reality-denying transgender ideology.
The Ohio outposts of those commanding heights are predictably incensed about the bill. The ACLU of Ohio issued a condemnation when it passed the senate and is urging Governor DeWine to veto it. For many years, this kind of browbeating has worked, even in now-red states such as Ohio. In purple North Carolina, the first bathroom-bill controversy ended with the bill in question being rolled back under a Democratic governor. This came after the application of immense economic and cultural pressure, downstream of a movement emboldened by its recent same-sex-marriage victory.
But if that movement succeeded in frightening many citizens from registering their dissent in the public square, we have learned that they remain unintimidated in the ballot box. Longtime Ohio Democratic senator Sherrod Brown, who remained in power despite the state’s reddening hue, came under pressure in his reelection campaign this year to distance himself from transgender ideology. He described an ad accusing him of supporting males competing in women’s sports as “a complete lie,” noting that Ohio law already forbids this. Brown, however, denounced such laws last year. Ohio voters saw through his prevarication and removed him from office.
Governor DeWine, surely cognizant of the sentiments behind this vote, is reportedly inclined to sign the bill. But he is conducting a legal review first. We hope this review does not conveniently discover a cowardly fig leaf that he will use to justify repeating his behavior last year. Since North Carolina’s rollback, eleven other states have passed bills like the one now on his desk. Joining them by signing it would protect minors in the state, affirm biological reality, and contribute another signal that woke excess is now on the defensive, and maybe even on the back foot.
It would also help redeem DeWine’s calendar-ending error. This inveterate public servant should not consider the unlikelihood that he will face voters again as a reason to insulate himself from their clear desires and interests. Rather, he should be thinking of this as a time when he will be finalizing his political legacy. He should not want it to end with disappointments. And if despite all of this, DeWine does not do what he ought, then the Ohio legislature knows what to do next.