Ohio legislators have introduced the Affirming Families First Act, a bill designed to protect parents who do not “affirm” their children’s transgender identity. Under the measure, parents could not be accused of abuse or acting contrary to the best interest of the child simply for affirming their child’s biological sex.

“No parent should lose custody, face state intervention, or be deemed unfit simply for affirming a child’s sex,” said Representative Josh Williams, a co-sponsor of the bill. The legislation specifies that parents have the right to use their child’s given name and correct pronouns and prohibits courts from considering such affirmations as a factor against parental responsibilities. It also prevents state agencies from using public funds for programs that characterize affirming a child’s sex as abuse.

Co-sponsor Representative Gary Click criticized existing state policies, calling them “unconscionable” for local government agencies to label parents as dangerous for refusing to affirm a child’s gender confusion.

Several states, including Indiana, Texas, and North Carolina, have taken similar steps to clarify that affirming a child’s biological sex is not abuse. Ohio has previously been a focal point of gender-affirming child welfare programs. The Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services developed AFFIRM.ME, a program that trained social workers to collect gender identity data on youth and monitor whether parents were “rejecting” or “accepting” their child’s gender identification. Federal agencies, including the Biden administration, relied on the program when developing foster care rules requiring gender affirmation. Those rules were later overturned after legal challenges.

Proponents of the Ohio bill argue it is necessary to prevent parents nationwide from losing children to state intervention over disagreements on gender ideology. Parental rights advocates have warned that children have been removed from homes in multiple states and even harmed under existing programs.

Laura Hanford, Senior Policy Analyst at the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Human Flourishing, said, “Thousands of families have faced state intervention for refusing to adopt unscientific beliefs about gender, and children have suffered in foster care as a result.”

The bill’s passage would mark a significant victory for parents’ rights and could influence similar legislation in other states struggling with gender-affirming child welfare policies.