Ohio
Is Ohio law banning gender-affirming care constitutional? Trial began Monday
Ohio’s transgender youth could get some clarity on their healthcare after this week.
The trial on the constitutionality of an Ohio law banning gender-affirming care began Monday. The trial is expected to last five days.
House Bill 68 was set to take effect in April after House and Senate Republicans voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto. The law would prevent doctors from prescribing hormones, puberty blockers or gender reassignment surgery before patients turn 18.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has found that puberty blockers for children who identify as transgender “generally leads to improved psychological functioning in adolescence and young adulthood,” but noted puberty blockers are not without risks.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio filed a lawsuit on behalf of two transgender girls and their families claiming the law violates the Ohio Constitution which gives residents the right to choose their health care.
Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Holbrook temporarily blocked the law in April, agreeing with the plaintiffs that “puberty does not arrive by appointment.”
Lawyers outline disagreement over treatment for gender dysphoria
Freda Levenson, a lawyer with the ACLU of Ohio, said she plans to call five witnesses: two parents of two transgender children and three experts, including Dr. Jack Turban, a child psychiatrist who researches gender dysphoria and mental health among transgender youth.
“These witnesses will demonstrate that puberty blockers and former therapy are safe and effective medical treatment for gender dysphoria in adolescents,” Levenson said.
Amanda Narog with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office argued that what the judge will hear will be the same information the Ohio Legislature considered before passing the bill.
She said the state plans to call seven witnesses. including Dr. James Cantor, a neuroscientist who researches human sexuality and pedophilia, and a parent whose child originally said they were transgender before changing their mind and deciding not to transition.
Narog said the state’s witnesses will testify that gender dysphoria is a mental health diagnosis best addressed “by mental health interventions that pose no risk of physical harm to patients.”
Mother’s voice breaks as she recounts House Bill 68 discussion with her daughter
The first witness was Gina Goe who spoke about her 12-year-old transgender daughter Grace. Both Gina and Grace Goe are pseudonyms meant to protect Grace from harassment.
She said Grace’s sex assigned at birth was male but she behaved differently from her three brothers early on.
Goe said Grace expressed an interest in wearing dresses as a toddler and around kindergarten, she started to cry and ask God to make her a girl. The family’s pediatrician referred Grace to the THRIVE program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital which specializes in sexual and gender development.
Grace was diagnosed with gender dysphoria around the second half of her kindergarten year. Gender dysphoria refers to the distress a person feels when their gender identity does not match their assigned sex. Grace started using a female name around 2018, before starting first grade, Goe said.
Goe said Grace now lives as a girl and does not want people to know she’s transgender.
Goe’s voice broke when she described discussing HB 68 with her daughter
“I remember we were sitting on my bed together and I shared with her on an appropriate level what’s happening and she laid down and wept in my bed and I held her and since then, she has told me that she just carried this looming worry and anxiety and just this deep sadness surrounding it all,” Goe said.
Haley BeMiller contributed reporting.
Erin Glynn is a reporter for the UA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
KRCR News Channel 7 and KCVU Fox 20 offers local and national news, sports, and weather forecasts to viewers in the Northstate including Redding, Shasta Lake, Shingletown, Anderson, Red Bluff, Corning, Chico, and Oroville. Coverage is also provided on the North Coast through KBVU Fox 28 and KAEF ABC 23.
Tick Bite Prevention Guide
Essential steps to prevent tick bites and protect your family and pets while outdoors.
Although they’re silent and among nature’s stealthiest stalkers, ticks now seem to be creating considerable public buzz.
Certain ticks can operate year-round. Nonetheless, interest heightens during spring when intersections increase between reactivated ticks, people and people’s pets.
What happens post-encounter depends on how long a person takes to find and disengage from a tick that has found them. Infection can occur after two-hour attachments. In short, hunters, anglers, hikers, noodlers, birders and anyone else wandering woods and fields, especially during May and June, demand speedy self-inspection and precautionary repellent use.
Lyme disease, a malady that can leave sufferers with chronic malfunctions, draws much attention because of its inexorable and fairly rapid spread from New England into seemingly virgin territory, including Ohio.
THE GREAT OUTDOORS: More about Ohio hunting and fishing
Specific tick species carry different maladies, though some deal out more than one.
Blacklegged ticks, aka deer ticks, are the primary spreaders of Lyme disease. The bite from a lone star tick, another relative newcomer to Ohio, can trigger several illnesses, the most trumpeted being a potential killer known as alpha-gal syndrome that makes the bitten allergic to red meat and dairy.
A few years ago, former Columbus Dispatch nature columnist Jim Fry lay on a hospital bed while paralysis crept up his legs to his arms and neck. Spreading immobility made him unable to lift his head.
“I was terrified,” said Fry, then 79.
Fortunately, a healthcare attendant noticed an engorged tick on Fry’s upper left arm. Removal of the tick veered Fry away from a proximate path to eternity, though full recovery took time.
The would-be assassin turned out to be a dog tick, historically common in Ohio. Also known as a wood tick, the relative of spiders and scorpions can carry in its saliva a neurotoxin that triggers what is known as tick paralysis in susceptible people, dogs and cats. Tick paralysis – rare enough not to ratchet up public awareness, let alone mania – can kill.
Climate change has been popularly depicted as the reason deer ticks and lone star ticks have spread from the South into New England and the Midwest. Climate probably has an influence, but it’s not the primary cause, concluded the Entomological Society of America with findings shared in the publication Entomology Today.
Researchers found it highly probable that tick species currently viewed as newcomers were here spreading their diabolical wares before a wave of settlers mowed down trees for agriculture and virtually wiped out the deer through hunting and habitat destruction.
Deer are not themselves vulnerable to Lyme disease, but they are spreaders of ticks.
It was especially extreme in Ohio around 1900. By that time, the landscape had been transformed from 95% forested to about 5%. Deer went absent. When much marginal farmland reverted to native trees during the next 100-plus years, it stimulated the growth of a teeming deer population.
More deer have allowed more tag-along ticks to reoccupy lost territory, the study hypothesized.
Parting shots
Pro bass fisherman Charlie Hartley, who led the 2008 Bassmaster Classic for a day and who earned a paycheck in 78 of 296 Bassmaster tournaments in which he competed, has been named to the Ohio Bass Fishing Hall of Fame. Hartley resides in Grove City. … Turkey season ends May 24 at sunset in central Ohio and May 31 at sunset in five northeastern counties. Through May 17, the turkey take exceeded the three-year average at a comparable date by about 550.
COLUMBIANA, Ohio (MyValleyTributes) – Glen Wenger, 83, formerly of Columbiana, Ohio, passed away at his home in Dublin, Ohio on May 20, 2026, after suffering from Parkinson’s disease and cardiac amyloidosis for many years. He was born February 9, 1943, the son of David and Letha (Brunk) Wenger.
He attended North Lima Schools up until his senior year, which he completed at Eastern
Mennonite High School in Harrisonburg, Virginia, graduating in 1961.
As a young adult, Glen spent two years in Nigeria with Mennonite Voluntary Service. He worked with a community development program, teaching boys in the village of Illah agricultural skills from which they could earn a living. Upon completion of that term, he returned home to Columbiana, where he was employed by Witmer’s Inc. In 1967, he married Ethel Baird. They would have celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary this August.
From 1980-82, Glen and his family served as Mennonite Mission representatives in Nairobi, Kenya, where he and Ethel were houseparents for boarding students at Rosslyn Academy. The trips Glen’s family took to game parks in Kenya were among his most treasured memories.
Upon returning to the US, Glen continued working at Witmer’s, Inc. until his retirement. During his time there, he worked in the parts and sales departments. For several years thereafter, Glen worked at McMaster Farms in Columbiana, thriving on the energy of the farm and finding great satisfaction in the growth and harvesting of various crops of produce. Glen was a dedicated, hard-working man. He was devoted to his family, church, and community. Always ready to help others, he served the Lord in numerous ways at Midway Mennonite Church, where he was a lifelong member. He was the groundskeeper at Midway for many years, as well as the cemetery sexton. He loved music, and contributed his rich bass in many special music groups, the Midway Church chorus, and in duets with Ethel.
Since moving to Dublin in 2019 to be closer to family, Glen enjoyed attending his granddaughter’s musical performances. Glen is survived by his wife, Ethel, son Mark (Candis) of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and daughter Amy (Jeff) Bixler, of Columbus, Ohio; his beloved grandchildren, Stella Bixler, Mira Bixler, Eve Wenger, Cameron Wenger, and foster granddaughter, Dani Naghshineh. Also surviving him are his siblings, Rachel (Joseph) Martin of Westwood, Massachusetts, Dale (Marian) Wenger of Columbiana, Ohio, and Alan (Marilyn) Wenger of Poland, Ohio, along with many nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents, son Eric, and sister Jean Wenger.
Glen will be greatly missed by all who knew him, and was dearly loved by his family and
friends.
Glen’s family asks that in lieu of flowers, memorial gifts be given to Midway Mennonite
Church, Columbiana, Ohio or Mennonite Central Committee, Akron, Pennsylvania.
Arrangements have been handled by Shaw-Davis Funeral Home.
A service to honor his memory will be held at a later date at Midway Mennonite Church
A television tribute will air Monday, May 25 at the following approximate times: 6:47 a.m. on WYTV, 9:43 a.m. on WKBN, 10:58 a.m. on FOX and 8:12 p.m. on MyYTV. Video will be posted here the day of airing.
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