State Rep. Has Hope for Law Protecting Minors From Trans ‘Care’

It’s been over a year since the Saving Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act went into effect in Ohio, and yet the law remains as relevant on a national and state level as ever. The law, sponsored by state Rep. Gary Click, protects minors from “gender-affirming” care, including procedures and hormones.

Click spoke to The Daily Signal about his hope for the law during last Thursday’s Essential Summit put on by the Center for Christian Virtue and sponsored by The Heritage Foundation.

The SAFE Act has had an eventful history. The law went into effect April 24, 2024, after the state legislature in January 2024 overrode Republican Gov. Mike Dewine’s controversial December 2023 veto. The law was immediately challenged in the courts.

The case is now in the hands of the Ohio Supreme Court, which as Click points out, “definitely keeps it in the news.” Not only is Click hopeful of victory, he says he “counted the whole time it was ultimately going to end up at one of the supreme courts.”

Click noted the SAFE Act been even upheld by courts where the outcome was less certain, including when a Franklin County judge ruled in favor of the law, despite his “nasty” comments ahead of his ruling. It also went before the Tenth District Court of Appeals.

While DeWine vetoed the bill, Click was reassuring about likely future Republican governor Vivek Ramaswamy’s support for the law. The state representative, along with state Sen. Kristina Roegner, a fellow Republican who sponsored the bill’s version in the Senate, wrote an op-ed in The Daily Caller in March supporting Ramaswamy.

During the Essential Summit panel discussion, Click brought up Chloe Cole, a young woman who transitioned at 15 before transitioning back to being a woman. While Chloe has since gained national fame, her first public testimony came in support of the SAFE Act when she was 17.

Like Chloe, many children experiencing gender dysphoria will grow out of such confusion, with Click mentioning during the panel discussion how “puberty is the natural cure” as “96% of the kids that go through puberty will desist.” He noted how those minors given puberty blockers or hormones, and then ultimately procedures, may regret their decision. The transgender population also suffer from higher rates of depression and loneliness, along with high rates of suicide or suicidal thoughts.

But there’s new reason to be hopeful the SAFE Act will protect children from this destructive path. Last month, Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus revealed they would cease providing “gender-affirming” medications.

10TV covered the news at the time:

A spokesperson for the hospital said that while they are currently in compliance with state and federal regulations, the decision was made “in order to proactively plan and support our providers and patients in a rapidly changing regulatory environment.”

Nationwide Children’s Hospital will stop providing gender-affirming medication prescriptions on Sept. 26.

The spokesperson said they will work with affected patients to end their prescriptions, “with patient safety as a top priority.”

“Nationwide Children’s will continue to support these patients and families through the provision of behavioral health services, and any other needed healthcare,” the spokesperson added.

The SAFE Act includes a grandfather clause for minors already receiving prescriptions to continue to do so. Rather, the hospital is referring patients to other providers or stepping them down. Click, as quoted by Axios, complemented Nationwide for “going above and beyond the requirements” and predicted this decision could in part be due to how “we have shifted public opinion.”

Click also expanded upon his praise. Reminding The Daily Signal that he was “very harsh on Nationwide,” he said that his “general philosophy” involves “if you’re going to condemn people for doing what’s wrong,” then “when somebody does right you should commend them” as a matter of “positive and negative reinforcement.”

Child-protecting laws such as the SAFE ACT have found success elsewhere. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar Tennessee law with the 6-3 decision in United States v. Skrmetti.

Click has other laws he’s working on to protect children, including a medical access bill known as “My Child My Chart” about access to records, which the state representative predicted would pass soon.

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