ATHENS, Ohio – Late Monday night, Gov. Mike DeWine used his veto power to strike language from the budget bill that prohibited funding from homeless youth shelters that affirm trans youths.
With his veto, DeWine stated: “If a shelter has to call a homeless youth a pronoun that is incongruent with that youth’s gender to get that person into a shelter so that child won’t freeze to death, it needs to be done without fear of funding getting clawed back.”
Erin Upchurch, executive director of Kaleidoscope Youth Centre, takes issue with this phrasing.
“I feel like that was unnecessary to write or include,” Upchurch said, claiming the language was inherently transphobic. That’s not the only thing that bothers her.
The budget still includes provisions that Upchurch and other transgender rights advocates consider anti-LGBTQ. Shelters can now affirm gender transition, but they cannot “promote” it for fear of losing funding. That language is frustratingly ambiguous for Upchurch.
“I am not interested in translating it. “We’re going to keep doing our work,” she stated. Kaleidoscope Youth Centre provides housing in Columbus, as well as other services for LGBTQ youth. While Upchurch is determined to continue Kaleidoscope’s mission, he does not believe legislative attacks on such organisations have ended.
“We’ve seen the last couple of years from the Ohio Legislature that they are so determined to make sure that LGBTQ people, in particular youth, do not get to experience life in a way that their peers do,” Upchurch pointed out. “It’s a concentrated effort and so I think … a part of the playbook is to keep us on edge.”
Dwayne Steward, executive director of Equality Ohio, is also dealing with the budget. When asked what promoting gender transition entailed, Steward replied, “I believe you’ll have to ask the governor that. … We believe that you can support a transgender young person entering your establishment by using their preferred pronoun. But you aren’t announcing it publicly.”
Making this distinction is especially important at Equality Ohio, which operates a legal clinic focused on LGBTQ issues. Steward is concerned not only about the legal implications of the shelter restrictions, but also about a provision that prevents Medicaid funding from being directed towards mental health services that promote or affirm gender transition.
Steward is concerned that the lack of clarity in these terms will lead to preemptive compliance from providers who may not be affected by the provision.
“The whole Medicaid situation is a complete confusing mess and I believe it’s been done by design,” replied Steward. “Providers will second-guess, pause, and potentially refuse to treat or provide services to trans people. And the vagueness, complication, and confusion will result in fewer trans people receiving care.
Steward believes that obfuscation could create a critical barrier.
“We see from the data that trans folks need this care in order to live,” he told me. “It’s really life or death.”
LGBTQ people seeking mental health services can click here for resources.
