Two GOP state lawmakers introduced an extensive bill Tuesday restricting the actions doctors, nurses, social workers and local agencies can take against parents or guardians who reject a child’s gender identity.
Named the “Affirming Families First Act” and introduced by Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery) and Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania Twp.), House Bill 693 offers parents broad protections from being investigated for abuse or neglect and from custody decisions based solely on their “affirming a child’s sex” rather than a child’s gender identity.
“They (parents and foster parents) should not have to choose between maintaining their moral beliefs or abandoning those beliefs just to raise their own children or provide a safe home for children who are most vulnerable in our state,” Williams said.
Professionals who don’t follow suit could lose their licenses.
Among its other measures, HB 693 blocks child welfare agencies from screening children for their sexual orientation or gender identity, and from maintaining databases based on the information.
Local conversion therapy bans would be struck down under HB 693, too.
Cuyahoga County and some Ohio cities have banned conversion therapy, therapy practices to change a person’s sexuality or gender identity, on minors. The American Psychological Association has deemed conversion therapy largely ineffective.
HB 693 is the most thorough legislation of its kind nationwide, said Laura Hanford, senior analyst with conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.
The bill, she said, addresses “the destruction wrought on families and children by radical gender ideology” and the “nooks and crannies of child (welfare) systems, where ideologues have embedded these dangerous beliefs.”
State LGBTQ+ rights organizations, the National Association of Social Workers of Ohio and legislative Democrats are all against HB 693.
“I’m not quite sure why, but apparently, the two lead sponsors on that bill are obsessed with transgender individuals,” Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said Wednesday. “They just can’t focus on something other than culture wars.”
Thirteen other GOP lawmakers have signed onto HB 693. It has yet to get its first hearing.
In 2024, House Bill 68 went into effect, banning minors from medical gender transition treatments, though it’s working its way through the court system.
