Last week, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) quietly signed a bill into law that requires educators to keep parents informed about their children’s “gender identities” and allow parents to opt their children out of lessons about sexuality.
Ohio’s H.B. 8 has been compared to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed by left-wing activists as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. The bill restricts which sex and gender lessons can be taught in schools and for specific grade levels.
According to The Hill, DeWine said that LGBTQ+ students are “welcome in Ohio, welcome in our schools and we want to protect them.”
“The basis of it, for me, is that if you’re a parent, you want to be informed about what’s going on in your child’s life. Parents are the best teachers — first teachers are the best teachers. It’s very, very important. I think that’s what was behind that,” he explained.
Ohio follows the lead of several other states with similar laws (via The Hill):
At least eight states have enacted laws that explicitly limit classroom instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity, and seven states require schools to notify parents of LGBTQ-related curricula and allow them to request alternative instruction.
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Including Ohio, nine states require schools to reveal a student’s gender identity to their parents without exception, something LGBTQ rights advocates say puts young trans people with unaccepting families in danger. In five states, state law promotes but does not require schools to “out” transgender youth to their parents, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks LGBTQ laws.
Reportedly, Ohio’s House passed the legislation in December in a 57-31 vote. Three Republicans joined Democrats to vote against it. It later passed the Senate 24-7.
Predictably, left-wing organizations came out against it, including Equality Ohio, the Ohio School Counselor Association, the Ohio School Psychologists Association and the National Association of Social Workers’s Ohio chapter.
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