Center Issues Call to Action
The LGBTQ+ Community Center of Darke County was founded in 2024 in line with the Ohio Suicide Prevention Plan to address increased rates of mental health crisis, suicide and addictions our communities. The Center has been fortunate to receive incredible community support, and continues to offer weekly community and support groups, along with a wide range of health and wellbeing programs and services. In addition to these types of programs, the Center recognizes the power of self-advocacy and from time-to-time issues calls-to-action about issues and policies that impact LGBTQ+ people and allies in and around Darke County.
Today, the Center is issuing such a call. There are three new bills in Ohio that go against the Ohio Suicide Prevention Plan, and are likely to cause harm to Ohioans, including LGBTQ+ children, youth, adults and families in Darke County. The Center is asking our community and partner agencies to speak out in opposition to these bills.
Ohio Budget – Ask Governor DeWine to Veto the anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation
Ohio legislature agrees on budget with six anti-LGBTQ+ provisions
There are six anti-LGBTQ+ pieces of legislation in the budget, and here is some additional information.
- The budget seeks to define sex as being only male and female. However, more than 1,000 species on Earth have intersex and transgender traits and 1-4% of the human population are born intersex or transgender each year. Best practices in line with advancements in science, medicine and biology recommend that sex definition should include at minimum: male, female, intersex or multisex, and MtF and FtM transgender. The proposed definition in the Ohio budget goes against medical, scientific and biological science, as well as the Ohio Suicide Prevention Plan, and could bar hundreds of thousands of Ohioans who are born intersex or transgender from receiving equal access to the laws, including housing, employment and even going to school. This law will make life much more difficult for this community right here in Darke, Miami and Shelby Counties. The Center has already heard from youth impacted by the sports and bathroom bans at the schools, and it’s not good. This will only make things worse.
- The budget also seeks to prevent funding for homeless shelters that serve LGBTQ+ youth, specifically intersex and transgender youth. No child should be forced from their homes or their families, and if that does happen, no child should be forced to sleep on the streets and stripped from the support network that everyone else can receive. Up to 40% of homeless youth are LGBTQ+. This bill would force these kids onto the streets with no other option – It is already known that homelessness and poverty lead to mental health crises, addictions and suicide. In no way should the state of Ohio be facilitating suicide and overdose death for transgender and intersex youth who were already abused and neglected by their parents – which is exactly what this part of the budget means.
- The budget also seeks to prevent LGBTQ+ youth and adults from receiving life saving medical and mental health care by preventing Ohio’s Medicaid from covering services for intersex and transgender people. No person should be denied equal access to health coverage based on who they are or how they were born. It’s not okay.
- The budget seeks to prevent LGBTQ+ youth and their parents from having equal access to library books about themselves and their families by moving all materials to restricted adults-only sections of the library. LGBTQ+ youth and their parents should have the same right to access topics about themselves as all other people. More importantly, stories about LGBTQ+ people shouldn’t be considered “adult content”. In fact, when LGBQT+ youth and their parents can access information and see themselves represented in society, we know there are better mental and medical health outcomes.
Governor DeWine’s Office: Contact Us | Governor Mike DeWine
HB190 – Given Name Acts
search-prod.lis.state.oh.us/api/v2/general_assembly_136/legislation/hb190/00_IN/pdf/
The Center has spoken with Representative Newmand and he has confirmed it is the express intent of the bill to prevent transgender and intersex people from being employed as teachers or working in any educational setting. Many people can imagine how devastating that would be not only for transgender and intersex teachers, but for kids who are born intersex and transgender to witness each day that their futures are limited in the jobs they can have, the sports they can play, and even the bathrooms they can use. It used to be an American value and basic right that people should have the opportunity to work at jobs they choose and participate freely in their communities. This bill is intended to take away that right. This type of law facilitates suicide, mental health crisis, and addictions in our communities. It cannot be passed, and Representative Newman and Representative King, and other legislators, have a duty to stop presenting these laws. The Center is asking the community and partners to please speak out on this and all related bills.
Representative Newman: Representative Johnathan Newman – District 80 | Ohio House of Representatives
HB249 – Indecent Exposure Act (Drag Ban)
search-prod.lis.state.oh.us/api/v2/general_assembly_136/legislation/hb249/00_IN/pdf/
This bill has come up several times, and has now been renamed the Indecent Exposure Act. For background, LGBTQ+ people faced criminalization for being born LGBTQ+ in the United States until 2003. It was not until 2015 that LGBTQ+ people could get married, and it was not until 2020 (just 5 years ago) that it was illegal to fire people in Ohio just for being LGBTQ+. As late as the early 2000’s gay men in Ohio were still being arrested for asking someone on a date. Many advocates are concerned about the Drag part of this, and from a Suicide Prevention lens, this law is devastating. This law recriminalizes the LGBQT+ community, and transgender and intersex people in particular.
The bill includes felony sanctions – prison time, permanent legal loss of gun rights and lifelong barriers to housing, college, employment and social services – for any person who “exhibits a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s biological sex using clothing, makeup, prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts, or other physical markers.” It also includes sanctions for anyone who is involved, including organizations, parents, etc.
This could mean any person who is engaged in a Drag Show or watching a Drag Story Hour, or any woman wearing flannel and jeans, or any man dressed up for Halloween. The language in the bill relies on the obscenity law in the ORC which means that most Drag Shows wouldn’t even be impacted (providing that law stays as is and courts agree). BUT, proponents of the bill have specifically referenced wanting to use this bill to have Drag Performers arrested. In fact, the examples that they used could be applied to the Darke County Visitors’ Bureau for hosting a community dance at Yolo Park (like they just did in May) where a kid shows up in clothing “not aligned with their biological sex,” and even parents who take their kids to an OSU game where cheerleaders are present could be arrested. The law is intended to criminalize public dance and set state standards for what people are allowed to wear, and it is specifically intended to go after LGBTQ+ people and LGBQT+ Community Centers who include Drag Performances at Pride events.
Ironically, Darke County has had the Pink Mile Men Drag Queens marching downtown to support Breast Cancer awareness for more than a decade without any harm to children. On the contrary, this law is what causes harm to children, adults and families in our communities. “Indecent Exposure” is already illegal in Ohio. This is something completely different. Because of the severe and extreme threat to liberty and loss of property and future life opportunities for all residents of Darke County and Ohio, the Center is urging the community and partners to oppose this legislation.
Representative King: Contact Angela N. King | Ohio House of Representatives
Opportunities to Take More Positive Action
The Center is inviting the community and partners to join the Center’s Safe Space Training on Monday, June 30th at the Greenville Library from 6:00p-7:30p. The LGBTQ+ Community Center of Darke County has partnered with Jennifer Boudrye from Queer Allyship to provide a train-the-trainer style Safe Space training this coming Monday, June 30th as part of our upstream suicide prevention efforts. Full details and registration here.
SAVE THE DATE: Darke County Pride, August 2, 2025
Details coming soon!