Ohio Settled Three Issues in Six Months and Enlarged the Political Narrative. Maybe.
Can we do something more important now?
Three cultural issues, all of which have been used by the two legacy political parties to distract, divide and rule, are no longer on the table in Ohio.
Two of them were handled last summer. First, Ohioans enshrined all citizens’ rights to reproductive freedom in the state constitution. Abortion is a decision between a woman, her family, her doctor and whoever else she decides to talk to about it. It’s none of the government’s business, not in Ohio.
It’s none of the public’s business for that matter.
At the same time, Ohioans overwhelmingly voted to legalize recreational marijuana for all citizens 21 and over. The prevailing sentiment here is that it’s really none of the government’s business what you decide to put in your own body, and pot’s harmless anyway, so let’s stop imprisoning people for this at taxpayer expense and for private profit.
Then, just this week, the Ohio House of Representatives overrode Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill banning all transgender care for children, and all transwomen from girls’ and women’s sports. The Senate will override it as well.
The message of the state legislature here, and one supported by a large majority of Ohioans, is that you can do whatever you want to your own body after you’re an adult, but if a child doesn’t have the legal maturity to sign a contract, open a bank account, join the military, get married, get a credit card, etcetera, then a child sure as shit doesn’t have the legal maturity to decide to stop puberty, become permanently sterile, and opt for elective plastic surgery.
And banning narcissistic boys, not to mention their parents who encourage them, who couldn’t win the gold or make the team as boys from using their biological male physiques to dominate girls in sports sounds both feminist and fair to me, most Ohioans, and I’m pretty sure most Americans.
The message of Democratic legislators who spoke in opposition didn’t help their cause. Accusing Republicans of murdering children by passing this legislation is as ridiculous as saying the Israelis are not mass murdering women and children in Gaza.
Whatever, that issue is done here.
Now, with all of that distractive stuff out of the way, maybe Ohioans can focus on things that really matter and have been neglected for far too long, like infrastructure and homelessness and East Palestine and hunger and living wages and public education and health care and lots of Much More Important Stuff like maybe advocating for a sane and rational foreign policy. Stuff that might make the established oligarchy very, very nervous.
Or not. This is Ohio, after all, but I’m proud of my adopted state for finally getting around to kicking some totally unproductive political bullshit to the curb once and for all.
Thank you for reading, good night, and good luck.
I'm happy about the two first issues passing--the right for an Ohioan to have an abortion without government interference and the right for Ohioans to possess some joints/pot plants for personal use--but I'm not very happy about the banning of care for trans-individuals. Like those who need an abortion, those having any kind of treatment for transgenderism only need to discuss this with their doctors, not the state. The state should have nothing to do with it.
Having worked in the psychiatric field and from the personal experiences of friends who are trans, denying care to some younger individuals is condemning them a lifetime of depression that can lead to suicide, either when they're still young or when they're older and become depressed about the "missed years" when they were forced to be a gender they were not. The sadness and frustrations of the state forcing this situation upon individuals against their will (and against the advice of their doctors) is just horribly transphobic and fascistic in its scope, IMO.
I have to tell you that persons who are transgendered are NOT into sports on the whole and don't really care about competing in high school basketball games, etc. That is a myth started by a big Trump fanatic a couple of years ago I'm told, just because he's transphobic/homophobic and wants all trans and gay people dead. (Really! Why would anyone keep repeating this lie?)
If Ohioans can have access to abortioncare and the state doesn't have a say in the manner (it's between them and their doctors) then trans persons of any age should have the right to seek and receive treatment that they and their doctors deem necessary for their psychological wholeness. I'm tired of reading about suicides that could have been prevented if trans individuals could have received the care they needed WHEN they needed it (and without the state's interference).
Well done!