State

Gov. Mike DeWine approves law, requires Ohio students use gender-assigned-at-birth bathroom

By Staff report Mahoning Matters
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 104 into law Nov. 27, which enacts both the Protect All Students Act and approves updates to Ohio’s College Credit Plus Program.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 104 into law Nov. 27, which enacts both the Protect All Students Act and approves updates to Ohio’s College Credit Plus Program. Sarah Palmer Getty Images

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 104 into law Wednesday, which enacts both the Protect All Students Act and approves updates to Ohio’s College Credit Plus Program.

What is the Protect All Students Act?

The Protect All Students Act bans transgender students from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity.

The new law prohibits students from using restrooms and other facilities that align with their gender identity if it does not match the sex they were assigned at birth.

The law applies to Ohio K-12 schools and college students. It prohibits schools from creating multi-gendered or open facilities.

In the new law, it says:

  • No institution of higher education shall knowingly permit a member of the female biological sex to use a student restroom, locker room, changing room, or shower room that has beendesignated by the school for the exclusive use of the male biological sex.

  • No institution of higher education shall construct, establish, or maintain a multioccupancy facility that is designated as nongendered, multigendered or open to all genders.

It was originally sponsored by two Republican State Representatives: Adam Bird (New Richmond) and Beth Lear (Galena).

The new law was originally sponsored by two Republican State Representatives: Beth Lear from Galena(left) and Adam Bird from New Richmond (right).
The new law was originally sponsored by two Republican State Representatives: Beth Lear from Galena(left) and Adam Bird from New Richmond (right). Ohio House of Representatives

“We are thankful that individuals will not have to worry about members of the opposite sex coming into restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms in Ohio,” said Bird. “Thank you, Gov. DeWine, for signing this important legislation and keeping students safe.”

Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Sara Beth Nolan said the bill protects women and girls’ privacy at school.

“States have a duty to protect the privacy, safety and dignity of women and young girls. Yet certain advocacy organizations—and the Biden-Harris administration through its Title IX rule change—are demanding that states devalue women by eliminating longstanding, distinct private spaces for males and females. Allowing males into women and girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms is an invasion of privacy and can even be a threat to their safety,” Nolan said.

Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) wrote a letter to Gov. DeWine to discourage him from signing H.B. 104 into law.

“There are so many other issues we should be working on,” Antonio wrote. ”There should be no exception to liberty and justice for all, yet here we are telling our children that there are people who are less than. This bill is not about bathrooms. It’s about demonizing those who are different, and our children are watching and listening to the fearmongering.”

Read Next