TOLEDO, Ohio — As an Ohio Senate vote next week on whether to override Gov. Mike DeWine's veto of House Bill 68 looms, LGBTQ+ rights organizations are urging legislators to uphold the governor's decision.
The Ohio House last week voted to override the veto. HB 68 to limit gender-affirming care for minors, restrict mental health care for transgender individuals under 18 and block transgender student-athletes from playing girls' and women's sports in the state.
Persephone Shock, the vice chair of ET Community Action, a Toledo-based organization that advocates for civil rights of people who face gender-based prejudice, said hormone-replacement therapy helped her become more comfortable in her identity.
"I couldn't pay attention to the world around me because I couldn't pay attention to the world inside me," Shock, a transgender woman, said. "It wasn't until I started my hormone-replacement therapy that I literally felt at home in my body."
She believes gender-affirming care should be available for minors in Ohio. So, ETCA planned a meeting on Monday at Pride Center 419 for local organizations and community members to gather for a discussion and make plans to contact their state representatives and senators to share their thoughts.
"It is wasting time, resources, money, all of this, on a community that's less than 1% of Ohio," Shock said of HB 68.
State Sen. Theresa Gavarone, a Republican, is a co-sponsor of the bill. In a statement sent to WTOL 11, she said she plans to vote to override DeWine's veto:
"I co-sponsored HB 68 because the bill is strongly pro-women and pro-children.
I’m extremely disappointed Governor DeWine chose to veto, but the intentions of the legislature to protect children and save women’s sports will not stop there.
The House, as is constitutionally required, recently started the override process for HB 68, and I’m looking forward to voting to override when the Senate comes back into session on January 24."
Shock said gender-affirming care saves lives and from her experience, decisions aren't made lightly.
"They talk with their mental physicians, they talk to their doctors, they go through a social transition generally, before they touch any type of medicine," Shock said of people who undergo gender-affirming care.
While she didn't begin gender-affirming care until adulthood. If it worked for her when she was younger, she would've started then, she said.
"I just know that I would've improved so much and I really wish I had that opportunity," Shock said.
The Ohio Senate will vote on whether to override the governor's decision on Jan. 24.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been edited to correct a description of hormone-replacement treatment.