Ohio bans gender-affirming care and restricts transgender athletes

Key Facts

| Carolyn Kaster/AP COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio has banned gender-affirming care for minors and restricted transgender women’s and girls’ participation on sports teams, a move that has families of transgender children scrambling over how best to care for them.
Her 14-year-old daughter Amity is already receiving mental health services and some medication, and would be able to continue her treatment under the law’s grandfather clause, but she wouldn’t be able to seek anything further, such as hormone therapies, and would have to go out of state to progress in her gender-affirming care.
The nation’s first law, in Arkansas, was struck down by a federal judge who said the ban on care violated the due process rights of transgender youth and their families.
At least 20 states have approved a version of a blanket ban on transgender athletes playing on K-12 and collegiate sports teams statewide, but a Biden administration proposal to forbid such outright bans is set to be finalized this year after multiple delays and much pushback.