update: 

Good Afternoon.

Today I am adding a new cause to this one. It's no secret that trans rights and abortion rights are interwoven. After the passing of Ohio Issue 1, Ohio's Republican party have decided to draft legislation which is undemocratic. Stripping the judicial branch of government for the GOP-controlled General Assembly, the Implementation of Issue One Act proposed by Jennifer Gross joins transphobic legislation. 

Combined, the NINE transphobic bills in Ohio are also being championed by Republicans drafting transphobic legislation.

Today's House Bill 68 is formerly known as HB 454. This was the first transphobic legislation introduced by Baptist minister and Republican Gary Click. Today, the evolved House Bill 68 includes parents courts. Refusing to identify "parents" as gender non-conforming or trans, it brings family courts and shared parenting plans into the control of Ohio Republicans.

Favoring parents who refuse to affirm gender, creating a registry for people diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and overriding multiple professional ethical boards, House Bill 68 is championed by each Representative who is anti-abortion.

Trans rights are human rights, and abortion rights are human rights! 

The Need to Protect Ethical Mental Health Practice In Ohio: continues with Ohio House Bill 68, introduced by that rascally scoundrel and Baptist minister Gary Click, on March 1, 2023. Consider this HB 454 2.0. While Republican co-sponsor Dianne Grendell was allowed to quietly retreat into the night around Christmastime while her judge is under investigation for misconduct, we are left with still worse human rights restrictions. 

This petition will remain live and edited as needed to reach the correct Ohio representatives. 

Until all anti-trans and anti-Black legislation stops, or until next time, solidarity.

L.J. Cunningham, they/them 3-1-2023 **all written below is from last year and serves as a record of how this trash was introduced in the first place.

Ohio House Bill 616 (our own "don't say gay" + race bill) and Ohio House Bill 454 is government overreach into the mental health, medical, and education professions. I am a licensed counselor in Ohio and have spent over a decade working with children; youth and families; harm reduction; crisis; residential therapeutic foster care; inpatient and outpatient environments, and am asking for all other licensed mental health professionals to sign and share this petition.

ALL licensed professionals and parents need to know the details of these bills. 

The single demand of this petition is stop either of these bills from moving forward into law. Why this is important takes awhile, so grab a cool drink: resources are at the end of the petition.

House Bill 454 had it's first hearing on February 17, 2022. I was present at the Ohio Statehouse on this date, and heard proponent Gary Click state that he is concerned that a counselor left alone with youth may "groom" the youth when using gender-inclusive language. This is harmful intentionally. Mental health professionals know that "grooming" refers to sexually predatory people, NOT licensed mental health professionals left alone with youth entrusted to their care. 

It's been a long overused and hateful trope to equate inclusivity and acceptance of LGBTQ people as child predators, and this is an attempt to write this into law.

HB 616 was introduced on 4/4/2022, and would allow superintendents to have the authority to have a teacher reprimanded for teaching specific materials for inclusivity specifically identifying Black authors and all forms of intersectionality and inclusivity. (More detail on that later). I have a personal example of why this is so scary. During the uprisings after the racist police-murder of George Floyd in 2020, educators and staff in a local school district chose to wear clothing with statements reading: "love is love, Black lives Matter," and "no human is illegal,” among other statements of inclusivity. A picture was posted to social media, and the staff were disciplined.

While I won't share the district in this petition, I am going to use my personal experience with this incident and public information to point out that when there was backlash to this publicly. The then-superintendent made a public statement equating homosexuality to pedophilia while being interviewed on a local news station afterwards. He then continued to refuse to make allowances for staff showing support for Black lives, immigrants, or queer people citing the exact language of "divisive concepts" used in HB 616. If HB 616 were law, teachers showing support for students could have lost their license or had it suspended for “promoting divisive concepts.” 

I cannot emphasize enough that this kind of messaging is directly linked to suicidal ideation, behavior, and attempts in LGBTQ, Indigenous and Black youth specifically. While the rates of self harm, anxiety, depression and suicide attempts are noted to be higher in LGBTQ youth, this is compounded in youth who are Indigenous, Black, and multiracial--it that order, with Indigenous LGBTQ youth the highest and most at-risk category.

Both of these bills attempt to redefine specific aspects of individual healthcare, including providing evidence-based, gender-affirming care to youth. Banning the use of gender-affirming care is evidence-based harm while having gender-affirming language and treatment is protective. If passed, HB 454 and HB 616 place licensed mental health professionals in the terrible position of breaking the law or practicing unethically. 

What is gender-affirming care and how is this misused in the bills?

Gender-affirming care is not limited to the medical profession. Gender-affirming care is recognized by both the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and American Counseling Association (ACA) as evidence-based treatment and ethical necessity, because refusal to provide this treatment causes harm to the individual client. Gender-affirming care in a therapeutic (rather than medical) context is using correct pronouns and names, providing evidence-based therapy to process systemic and interpersonal traumas, and referring to specific practitioners for further gender-affirming care if clinically indicated to be in the client's best interest.

Statement from the American Counseling Association regarding gender-affirming care: 

"The Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling understands that a sudden interruption in health care could precipitate physical and mental health crises among trans youth. Gender-affirming medical and mental health care for transgender and gender expansive youth is lifesaving (Comprehensive Research Brief). We stand in solidarity with parents, caregivers, and treatment providers for transgender and gender expansive youth. ALGBTIC’s views are in line with the American Academy of Pediatrics, whose accepted best practice is comprehensive gender-affirming medical care since 2018.

The proposed laws, if enacted, could bring devastating harms to transgender and gender-expansive individuals. ALGBTIC strongly opposes any bills that creates life threatening barriers, allows for discrimination, or is in opposition to the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics." --May 21, 2020

From the National Association of Social Workers (NASW): 

"To the transgender and gender expansive youth, children and adults that are struggling and hurting in this moment. Please know we hear you, we see you and we support you. NASW stands in solidarity with you and will continue and uplift transgender rights as human rights.” Feb., 2022, in response to similar laws passed in another state.

What does this mean for licensed mental health and medical professionals in Ohio:

The existence of HBs 454 and 616 as law would be inherently harmful in the counseling relationship: imposing values and beliefs onto clients but controlling what can and cannot occur in a session. This not only intrudes on a clinician's clinical judgment, it is also inherently antithetical to the profession and role of a counselor in total. The reason laws and ethics exist is in large part to keep such abuses from occurring.

What does this mean for licensed educators in Ohio: 

Ohio House Bill 616 further compounds the harm of refusing gender-affirming care and joins that in a racist target against students of the global majority. This is an attempt to re-write American history, define concepts which don't exist, and empowers the school superintendent and administration to recommend a licensed teacher to have disciplinary action up to having their teaching license suspended or revoked for teaching the following: 

(1) "Divisive or inherently racist concepts" include all
of the following:
(a) Critical race theory;
(b) Intersectional theory;
(c) The 1619 project;
(d) Diversity, equity, and inclusion learning outcomes;
(e) Inherited racial guilt;
(f) Any other concept that the state board of education…"

Because I am not a licensed teacher, I encourage further understanding of this part of the law, because here is where we see a clear, intentional addition to the bill dictating what licensed teachers are and are not able to teach and say in the classrooms, and goes into detail into what concepts, grade levels, and other specifics far outside the scope of state government.

HB 616 continues to impact teachers in this way:

"The state board shall afford the teacher, school, administrator, or school district superintendent an opportunity for a hearing in accordance with sections 119.01 to 119.13 of the Revised Code.
(3) If the superintendent of public instruction finds that the teacher, school administrator, or school district superintendent violated division (B) or (C) of this section, the department of education shall issue an adjudication order in accordance with section 119.06 of the Revised Code taking licensure action based upon the severity of the offense, including, but not limited to, an official licensure
admonishment, licensure suspension, or licensure revocation.

I want to be clear that HB 616 is far worse than I can illustrate here. Below are further resources, including the actual bills themselves. I encourage everyone in Ohio to read them and reach out to their individual Representatives in addition to calling on the House Committee and bill sponsors.

What Else Can We Do?

• Contact the sponsors of the bill directly to demand that they stop moving forward with this racist, bigoted, waste of time and money. Find the sponsors and bill PDFs below:https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-summary?id=GA134-HB-616 
• https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-summary?id=GA134-HB-454
• Stay Up-to-date on local information, perspective, and actions here:
• IG follow @QTAC614
• IG follow @@saej_ohio
• IG follow @kycohio
• IG follow @equality.ohio
• IG follow @sdsohiostate
• Use Your Platform: 
• Consider using your platform if you have one to track these bills and demand that they never become law. 
• Build Community: Find your grassroots communities and orgs and reach out to see if there can be support/you can provide support. We need all hands on deck. Ohio is not unique.
• Need to know more about the 1619 Project? (not an inclusive list, but start here)
• Inside the Book: Nikole Hannah-Jones (THE 1619 PROJECT)
• https://youtu.be/KSuhUKj1phI
• https://1619books.com/
• CRT: (not an inclusive list, but start with the literal people who wrote the books and did the work)
• https://youtu.be/A4vwmhy2Trc

In Solidarity Always,

L.J. they/them

*edited at times for clarity, to add info