LGBTQ+ advocates condemn Ohio budget plan to defund youth shelters, restrict books
The Ohio Senate Education Committee welcomed school district leaders, librarians, parents, students and other residents on May 14 for a wide-ranging hearing on the education funding within House Bill 96, legislation meant to outline Ohio's budget for the next two years. Watch a previous NBC4 report on the budget proposal in the video player above.
The more than 5,000-page bill covers a myriad of topics, and includes the following amendments that leading advocacy organizations said would harm the state's LGBTQ+ community:
Codify state policy recognizing two sexes, male and female, and that 'these sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.'
Require public libraries to place material 'related to sexual orientation or gender identity or expression in a portion of the public library that is not primarily open to the view of the persons under the age of 18.'
Bar funding to youth homeless shelters 'that promote or affirm social gender transition.'
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'These amendments are not only discriminatory, but they are also detrimental to the welfare of thousands of LGBTQ+ Ohioans, and legislates harm against some of the most vulnerable members of our society,' said Dwayne Steward, executive director of Equality Ohio.
Steward condemned the provision to defund certain homeless shelters as 'a direct assault on the safety and well-being of Ohio's youth,' citing a 16-year-old student who was recently kicked out of their home in Troy for being transgender. It was only when the student found refuge in a Dayton youth shelter that offered LGBTQ+ services that they began to feel safe, Steward said.
'Stripping away funding from such shelter would leave countless young people without the support they desperately need,' the executive director argued, noting that a report from the Williams Institute at UCLA found 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ+.
Dara Adkison, executive director of TransOhio, denounced the measure 'to recognize two sexes,' claiming the language is factually incorrect, contradicts medical, psychological, and legal understanding of sex and gender, and denies the reality of trans, nonbinary and intersex Ohioans.
'The language of this proposed budget rejects their lived experiences and reality. For many trans and intersex Ohioans, legal and medical transition is life-saving,' said Adkison. 'Attempts to erase or deny these rights through budgetary language would almost certainly invite legal challenge, costing Ohio taxpayers both financially and morally.'
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Adkison cited the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Endocrine Society, which recognize that sex and gender exist on a spectrum. The executive director also noted Bostock v. Clayton County, a 2020 Supreme Court case that said sex discrimination includes LGBTQ+ people.
Ohio House legislators have long argued the sex provision is need given 'it's accepted science that there are two genders.' In April, Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said, 'This simply ends the discussion in the state of Ohio which I think most voters, most citizens of Ohio agree with, and it also prevents us from having months and months and weeks of arguments.'
Cookie Dixon, a trans Ohioan, testified against requiring public libraries to limit access to LGBTQ+ materials, and said such books were a pivotal part of their self discovery.
'Restricting these resources hurts queer children who were in the same place I was; I had no sense of self and was ready to completely give up before I began exploring my gender identity,' said Dixon. 'This also continues to perpetuate the harmful idea that queer people are obscene, something to be hidden from the eyes of children, a thinly veiled attempt at pushing us back out of the sight of the public as our mere existence continues to be illegalized.'
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Sharon Hawkes, a former librarian and head of Right to Read Ohio, submitted testimony that the mandate would force libraries to remove any mention of LGBTQ+ people, and many child and teen biographies, literary fiction, romance, history, and age-appropriate sex education. Hawkes said a similar Idaho law forced at least one library to close to children because it didn't have the resources and space to isolate adult materials away from the children's section.
'This mandate would be very costly, forcing librarians to sift through their collections to find these books and perhaps remove taxpayer-funded books,' said Hawkes. 'It is also hurtful, telling certain minority communities that they should not be read about.'
H.B. 96 will continue to be debated in Ohio Senate hearings open for public testimony.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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