Rep. Liston condemns House passage of bill requiring genital inspections to play high school sports

COLUMBUS – State Representative Beth Liston (D-Dublin) today issued the following statement after the House of Representatives passed House Bill (HB) 151, legislation requiring high school athletes to prove their gender by submitting to intrusive inspections of their genitalia and other invasive tests.

"This legislation is just plain sick," said Rep. Liston. "No child should be forced to undergo 'genital inspections' so that they can play sports."

HB 151, as amended, is a badly designed effort to exclude transgender students from sports teams by requiring any student, at any time, to submit to an unwanted inspection of their internal and external reproductive anatomy, a requirement Rep. Liston called "very creepy and borderline assault."

All House Republicans voted in favor of HB 151 while all Democrats opposed the bill. 

"Our children's sexual development is none of the Ohio House's business," said Rep. Liston. "My Republican colleagues need to keep their hands off our children."