The College Fix

Conservatives, detransitioners cheer development

Ohio Senate lawmakers on Wednesday voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s recent veto of a bill that prohibits biological males from competing in women’s sports and restricts sex-change treatments for minors, a move that makes the proposal law, as a majority of representatives in the Ohio House already voted Jan. 10 to override the veto.

House Bill 68 will become law in 90 days with the Senate’s vote of 24 to 8, WLWT reported.

Also known as the SAFE Act, the legislation states that “no school, interscholastic conference, or organization that regulates interscholastic athletics shall knowingly permit individuals of the male sex to participate on athletic teams or in athletic competitions designated only for participants of the female sex.”

It also disallows puberty blockers, hormone therapy and gender transition surgeries for minors.

“This achievement is testimony to the idea that we can change minds, change opinions, and face opposition even within the Republican Party and still win,” detransitioner activist Chloe Cole said in response to the news.

And the conservative Heritage Foundation posted on X: “Ohio women and children will not have to pay the price at the altar of gender ideology for [DeWine’s] political correctness.”

DeWine, a Republican, previously said he had vetoed the legislation in late December because of its restrictions on transgender treatments.

The New York Times reports that Ohio’s legislation is part of a “national wave of laws” curbing transgender treatments for minors, with at least 20 states with Republican-controlled legislatures passing such laws recently.

Last June, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law that prohibits biological men from competing in women’s collegiate sports. Last March, Arkansas also passed a law banning biological men from women’s sports.

In 2021, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis did the same.

MORE: Ohio governor nixes bill that would have blocked males in women’s sports

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