Jessie Balmert

jbalmert@enquirer.com

COLUMBUS - One of Ohio's most conservative lawmakers is looking into requiring transgender people to use unisex or family bathrooms.

Rep. John Becker, R-Union Township, is floating a proposal that he says would protect Ohioans from sexual predators posing as transgender people to gain access to women's bathrooms, possibly by requiring transgender people to use unisex or single-stall bathrooms.

He cited a Seattle case where a man, apparently making a point about the city's nondiscrimination laws, undressed in a women's locker room. The conservative American Family Association raised similar concerns while protesting Target's transgender bathroom policy, which allows customers and employees to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

“My concern is sexual predators posing as transgender people to gain access to women’s facilities," said Becker, who represents northwestern Clermont County. “I’m not suggesting that transgender people are sexual predators. I’m sure the vast majority are honest citizens going about their daily business.”

But LGBT advocates say Ohio already laws against sexually assaulting anyone anywhere, which would include bathrooms. Becker's proposal would solve no problems, and only create angst for transgender people, Equality Ohio spokesman Grant Stancliff said.

"It sounds like it’s a concern for John. It’s not much of a concern for those who live in the real world," Stancliff said.

Becker could not point to an instance in Ohio where a sexual predator posed as a transgender person, but he's not waiting around for it to happen. "Someone needs to step up before this becomes a problem," Becker said.

The proposal is a variation on a recently passed North Carolina law, which requires individuals to use the bathroom associated with the gender on their birth certificates. That law has drawn ire from LGBT groups, President Barack Obama and a slew of musicians, who have canceled performances in the state. Earlier this month, Cincinnati City Council voted to ban travel to North Carolina and Mississippi in protest of their anti-LGBT laws.

Council votes to ban government travel to N.C., Miss.

GOP presidential candidates, including Gov. John Kasich, weighed in. On CBS News' "Face the Nation," Kasich said he wouldn't have signed such a law in his state, "from everything I know." It's not clear whether Becker's fellow House Republicans would support such a proposal. They would have to see the language, staff said.



Becker is no stranger to controversial topics. He said the United States was flipping God the middle finger following the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. He attended a rally in support of jailed Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who refused to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples.