New Ohio law restricts bathroom access for transgender students

By Rich McKay

(Reuters) – Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed into law on Wednesday a measure prohibiting students from kindergarten through college from using school single-sex bathrooms and locker rooms other than ones of their biological gender.

The law, called Protect All Students Act, is the latest salvo over transgender rights roiling America. Last week, following the election of the first transgender member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. House speaker issued a statement reserving all single-sex bathrooms in the Capitol building for “individuals of that biological sex.”

Ohio joins at least a dozen other states with laws that restrict bathroom access for transgender people. Governor DeWine’s office declined comment.

The Ohio law’s restrictions also include private schools and prevents transgender students from sharing overnight accommodations with students of the opposite biological gender.

Aaron Baer, president of the Ohio-based Center for Christian Virtue, applauded the new law on Wednesday.

“Common sense is on a winning streak in America today,” Baer said in a statement. “No student should be forced to go into the bathroom or locker room with a student of the opposite sex, and Ohio’s kids are better protected now because of Governor DeWine’s decision to sign this bill.”

The American Civil Liberties Union condemned the passage of what it called an “anti-trans bathroom bill” when it was passed by the Ohio General Assembly two weeks ago.

Jocelyn Rosnick, policy director for the ACLU of Ohio, said when the bill passed that it is “a cruel invasion of students’ rights to privacy.”

“At every level of government, trans Ohioans face a wave of attacks,” the ACLU said in a statement on Wednesday. “Such efforts are blatantly discriminatory and deeply cruel.”

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; editing by Donna Bryson and Richard Chang)