Why would a fairly advanced democracy in the Year of Our Lord 2018 even be “debating” this kind of nonsense? In recent months, I’ve wondered if there isn’t a finite amount of democratic energy in this country and whether or not we’ve run low enough that we should ration it for those issues that really matter. And, I’m sorry, members of the Ohio legislature, you’re all just the democratic equivalent of lawn sprinklers in Utah here. From The Cincinnati Enquirer:

House Bill 658 requires any government agent (which includes teachers) immediately report to all parents or guardians if a child "demonstrates a desire to be treated in a manner opposite the child's biological sex" or exhibits symptoms of gender dysphoria, which is when someone identifies with a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth. Under the proposed law, it would also be a fourth-degree felony for a school or any "government entity" to provide gender dysphoria treatment without consent from each parent or guardian. Treatment includes "educational materials, classes, or programs, and medical, psychological, social, or other professional treatment, therapy, counseling, or other services."

A simple act of kindness toward a trans child would now be a fourth-degree felony, punishable in Ohio law by six to 18 months in prison? (The actual cops and judges are going to love dealing with that, I’m sure.) Turning public school teachers into gender cops—after threatening their livelihoods with a charter school frenzy that ended in a scandal that should hang around John Kasich’s neck for years—is a terrible idea on so many levels that you may never reach the top one.

For the love of god, whom I suspect is being used as an alibi in this misbegotten venture, can’t you just leave this to the families of the students? The process can be hard enough on them. Look at the case that set this law in motion.

Rep. Tom Brinkman, a Mount Lookout Republican, introduced the bill in May. His legislation was inspired by a case in Cincinnati in which a Hamilton County Juvenile Court granted custody of a transgender teen to his grandparents. This custody arrangement allowed the teen to pursue hormone therapy, which his parents opposed…In the Cincinnati case, the teen emailed a crisis hotline and said one of his parents had told him to kill himself and refused to let him get therapy "unless it was Christian-based," according to the complaint.

You want to put teachers in the middle of something like that, on pain of imprisonment? Precisely what kind of chowderhead are you? Glad you asked.

Rep. Brinkman has spent a great deal of time concocting nakedly unconstitutional bans on abortion, as well as bills to make Ohio a right-to-work state. These people know their time is running out. The only question is how much pain and damage they’ll leave behind for kids to clean up.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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