You know you’ve found a RINO when you see an individual who will stick his neck out to stand up for a policy that is a clear violation of conservative principles but immediately start walking that position back as soon as his constituency or colleagues apply some heat. And that’s precisely what’s happened with Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio).
DeWine has a solid reputation for being squishy and not living up to the values that conservatives hold. All you have to do is see how the governor responded to the COVID-19 pandemic a few years ago and you’ll learn everything you need to know about the man and how he governs.
For whatever reason, DeWine is coming out hot and heavy in favor of transgenderism and the lucrative industry that provides individuals who claim to be a different gender than the one they were biologically born with hormone therapy and surgery. Why he’s attempting to pander to this very small portion of the population is truly beyond me, but he’s making it clear he thinks it’s A-OK to rush out and alter your body if you believe you are a different gender.
A Republican governor has weakened proposed health, safety, and ethical protections for Ohioans who identify as transgender, increasing the speed at which the transgender industry can begin cross-sex hormones or surgeries. His administration said it watered down the requirements based on “assurances” from the transgender industry that it already self-polices its own actions in an ethical manner. Yet the state is still being sued by the ACLU for protecting those under the age of 18 from transgender procedures.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) rolled back proposed regulations asking anyone struggling with gender dysphoria under the age of 21 to take six months of counseling before undergoing cross-sex hormone injections or undergoing transgender surgeries, such as a double mastectomy, orchiectomy, phalloplasty, or vaginoplasty. The new rules announced on Wednesday apply only to minors, who may not be subjected to transgender surgical procedures, and also greatly expand the people who can offer such “counseling” beyond psychologists to include nurses and social workers. “The revised quality standard rules are now applicable only to care for minors,” stated a memo from the Department of Health and the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.
The brand new guidelines have been revised so that “medical ethics professionals” no longer have to review the actions that medical professionals working in the transgender industry take. DeWine’s administration has also tossed out the need for ethical oversight of the industry because of “assurances from” the industry “that providers already appropriately engage medical ethics professionals.”
This is like throwing away your home alarm system because robbers promised that they wouldn’t steal anything from your house. It’s stupid and nonsensical. Honestly, it’s an embarrassment that a governor would assume that these people are above board, especially when you see how much money doctors and surgeons stand to make off transgender individuals, especially minors.
“We said from the get-go these EO’s [executive orders] were hollow & now there’s no doubt,” Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue (CCV), said.
The governor’s office put out a press release stating that the “changes reflect his focus on these priorities while reflecting the public comments received by the agencies.”
The public comment period on the rule, which ended January 19, elicited 3,900 comments spanning 6,800 pages — many from transgender activists and left-wing foes. Seven Democratic state senators asserted in their public comment that “the rules will lead to poor health outcomes and possible loss of life.”
Transgender activists praised DeWine’s reversal. The executive director of the LGBTQ pressure group Equality Ohio thanked DeWine for his “responsiveness” to their lobbying. Kathryn Poe, a researcher at the left-wing Policy Matters Ohio (and who has noted, “My wife is a trans woman”), credited the transgender movement’s mobilization of its activist core for the change. “To everyone who submitted public comments — your voice really did matter,” said Poe.
So why would a Republican governor roll back these protections, despite the fact doing so will make the GOP base dislike him more than it already does? DeWine says he took this particular course of action to create “consensus.”
The governor introduced the regulations after vetoing H.B. 68, a combination of the Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act (SAFE) and the Save Women’s Sports Act shortly after Christmas. H.B. 68 bans the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone injections, and gender mutilation surgeries to anyone under the age of 18; prohibits men from competing against women in sports; prevents courts from denying or limiting custody to a parent who refuses to “affirm” their child’s transgender identity; and refuses to fund minors’ transgender procedures through Medicaid.
DeWine says he introduced the rules because he thought it was an excellent way to “take this issue off the table” so the state government could “talk about other things.” Unfortunately for him, the Ohio General Assembly slapped down his veto last month, officially making Ohio the 23rd state to provide protection for minors.
This is not going over well with the American Civil Liberties Union, which has announced that it will be filing a lawsuit to block the implementation of the bill, which is set to take effect in April.
“HB68 is not only cruel; it violates the Ohio Constitution and must be challenged,” Freda Levenson, legal director at the ACLU of Ohio, said about the legislation.
We shouldn’t even need a bill for this. It’s common sense. If minors are not allowed to buy a gun, vote, purchase cigarettes, drink, or drive a car, they are certainly not mature enough to make a decision that could leave them permanently disfigured, which they could potentially come to regret later in life.
One of many reasons we’re seeing an increase in teenagers identifying as transgender is because it’s become a trendy thing to do. Influencers on social media, politicians, and celebrities are all posting nonstop about this stuff. Kids are desperate to be cool, so they start indulging in the false narratives they see. Before you know it, one kid at a school identifying as transgender turns into five, then ten, and on it goes. This is a social contagion.
If you allow a child who has fallen prey to a social contagion to have life-altering surgery, the moment they wake up, they are going to regret what happened and may fall into a deep depression. This is why there is such a high rate of suicide among transgender individuals.
The primary sponsor of H.B. 68, Rep. Gary Click (R-88), said the lawsuit came as no surprise, since the ACLU has “a storied history of inventing fictitious rights while opposing actual rights such as those enshrined in the SAFE Act.” Children, he said, have a right to grow up with their natural sex hormones and body parts intact. “Parents have a right to be free from counselors who groom their children without consent. Families should never fear losing custody of their children for not consenting to superstitious gender ideology.”
“It is no wonder so many refer to it as the Anti-Civil Liberties Union,” said Click.
It’s still a mystery why DeWine is fighting so hard to allow all of this transgender stuff. Is he attempting to look middle-of-the-road because he has political aspirations that go beyond being a governor? That’s a scary thought.