Ohio HB 183 aka The Bathroom Bill
HB183, Ohio’s House Bill which is titled “Regards single-sex bathroom access in schools, universities”
This bill can be found here, https://ohiohouse.gov/legislation/135/hb183
I had hoped to give my testimony in person at this committee meeting today, but I had a late night service ticket and didn’t make it home until the early morning. On top of that, today is also my 15 year anniversary with my Babette Erin Stewart-Arness (HI BABE!) and then I have an early job tomorrow. So sleep won out.
I don’t support, and mostly oppose this bill, why? For one, I can understand why people think this bill needs to exist. On the other hand, this bill, and other such bills, without intention I believe, are slowly whittling away men’s (boy’s) freedoms.
Below is my written testimony on this bill, and below that is my in-person testimony I was going to give.
H.B. 183 Ohio House Higher Education Committee 10-11-2023 submitted testimony drafted 10-10-2023
Steven Arness AKA Steven Arness
While it may not look like it, I stand before you as the epitome of microaggressions, bigotry, and discrimination, of which I will give you some of my personal experiences.
So lets ask the question, and while it may not sound serious to you, it is for me, as a heterosexual male, which restroom do I use?
Yes, I know, it is a rather silly question now isn’t it as looking at me right now you assuredly would say for me to use the men‘s restroom.
I ask because if me and my wife were to visit a place of public accommodations dressed in the same attire, I could be told to change clothes or leave.
In fact I was told to leave a place of public accommodations for dressing the same way as other females had the freedom to do. When I asked the Ohio Civil Rights Commission to look into this. The defendant blatantly admitted that I would not have been kicked out if I was a women. And while the commission did agree that I was discriminated against based on sex, they denied me conciliation and closed the case.
You see, sometimes I wear a skirt, yes, a heterosexual male wearing a skirt that a typical female might wear. I am not transgender, transvestite, gay, cross-dresser, child molester, pedophile, or mentally ill.
Civil rights organizations all speak of equality, but being a white heterosexual male has none of them standing behind or next to me. Those that you think would, like the ACLU, drop my concerns as some man wearing a skirt needs psychiatric help, not civil right help. Instead I have organizations and individuals that stand in front of me and block my path saying I do not have the same rights as women and they suffer no reproductions for doing so.
So which restroom do I use? The one with the skirted picture? Or the one that says men’s? Or as most people have been made to believe, should I say I’m transgender when I wear a skirt? If I use the men’s room while wearing a skirt, what kind of issues will that cause? The women’s? When my wife wears pants, should she be using he restroom depicting pants? What about women that use the men’s room at events due to the long lines for the women’s?
In my over 20 years of operating an amusement park, I interacted with thousands of kids and adults every year. And while I tried to stay gender neutral when I came across someone who was androgynes, sometimes I slipped, some where okay, others upset, but I never treated any of them with disrespect. Why don’t we have different restrooms for democrats and republicans? From the outside I think we can agree that they look the same.
What about a Tomboy, or a Janegirl? Is someone in authority going to put a label on their forehead and hand so that they/we can verify which restroom they are to use? It’s ludicrous to claim that transgender males are going into female restrooms and transgender females are going into male restrooms for nefarious purposes. They don’t want that kind of attention and they typically don’t want to be in there any longer then necessary.
I went to watch an ice skating competition, a little girl and I presume her dad entered and I watched as it took him two tries before he found a women to take his daughter into the girls locker room to get changed. A little while later I saw a mom show up with her son and they both walked straight into the men’s bathroom/boys changing room.
One day at learn to skate a little girl asked me to tie her skates, I told her no, she asked why, I said I couldn’t, she asked why not? After a few more back and forth’s, she finally left and sought help elsewhere, now I certainly could tie her skates. But I face enough repercussions for just wearing a skirt to not give ignorant people more ammunition. In hindsight It was wrong of those people to make me feel the way I did and I hope one day that little girl understood why I said no.
My wife certainly doesn’t claim to be transgender when wearing pants, and nobody cares when she does. Yet when I wear an unbifurcated garment, I’m escorted out of the building. Do you know what my wife’s solution is to my skirt wearing? To move outside the United States, can you believe that? In the land of the free she suggested that we move out of the country.
It doesn’t matter if this bill passes or not as it does not address the root of the problem. And the problem is not a girl that wants to be a boy that would need to use the boys restroom, or a boy that wants be a girl that would need to use the girls restroom.
The problem is that we are scared of men, and more so that we are ashamed of our own bodies. Nobody believes me when I tell them about the discrimination I have experienced, and when I elaborate, they tell me to just wear pants. Why? Do they tell people of color to change their skin tone to white? Do they tell females to change their sex?
And that’s what this bill, and some of the other bills are really about are they not? To suppress males from experiencing gender freedom as its all fine when we uplift women, yet turn around and squash males when they attempt the same. There is a saying that says, “Anyone can be anything they want to be” well, unless your male that is. We made all kinds of laws to bring females level with males, while being blind to the societal restrictions that we placed on them.
In 2003 US Figure Skating changed the singles rules on women’s attire in allowing them to wear trousers in competition. And then in 2021 they removed all attire based restrictions across all disciplines, males however are still required to wear full length trousers. Look at congress, even they can’t make unbiased clothing rules.
Why is it so hard to treat everyone equally as individuals instead of segregating them into pre-made biased boxes and restricting them from doing something that harms no-one?
I’m getting old, all I want to do is skate, and perhaps inspire others to express their own freedom. I shouldn’t have to choose which restroom to use based on what I’m wearing or how I feel. All I want to be is me, and I just need to tinkle.
H.B. 183 Ohio House Higher Education Committee 10-11-2023 proposed in-person testimony
Steven Arness AKA Steven Arness
(Revised 3:31pm October 10th 2023)
(Direct all talking to Chairman, refer to others if needed through Chairman.)
Chairman Mr. Merrin, Ranking Member Mr. Boyd and members of the Higher Education Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on House Bill 183. My name is Steven Arness and I am here today to share with you my personal experiences and thoughts about this legislation.
While it may not look like it, I stand before you as the epitome of microaggressions, bigotry, and discrimination.
So lets ask the question, and while it may not sound serious to you, it is for me, as a heterosexual male, which restroom do I use?
Yes, I know, it is a rather silly question now isn’t it as looking at me right now you assuredly would say for me to use the men‘s restroom.
I ask because if me and my wife were to visit a place of public accommodations dressed in the same attire, I could be told to change clothes or leave.
In fact I was told to leave a place of public accommodations for dressing the same way as other females had the freedom to do. When I asked the Ohio Civil Rights Commission to look into this. The defendant blatantly admitted that I would not have been kicked out if I was a women. And while the commission did agree that I was discriminated against based on sex, they denied me conciliation and closed the case.
You see, sometimes I wear a skirt, yes, a heterosexual male wearing a skirt that a typical female might wear. (I didn’t wear a skirt today as I wasn’t sure if I would be turned away at the door.) I assure you that I am not transgender, transvestite, gay, cross-dresser, child molester, pedophile, or mentally ill.
Civil rights organizations all speak of equality, but being a white heterosexual male has none of them standing behind or next to me. Those that you think would, drop my case as they think some man wearing a skirt needs psychiatric help, not civil rights help. Instead I have organizations and individuals that stand in front of me and block my path saying I do not have the same rights as women and they suffer no repercussions for doing so.
Omit for time (So which restroom do I use? The one with the skirted picture? Or the one that says men’s? Or as most people have been made to believe, should I say I’m transgender when I wear a skirt? If I use the men’s room while wearing a skirt, what kind of issues will that cause? The women’s? When my wife wears pants, should she be using he restroom depicting pants? What about women that use the men’s room at events due to the long lines for the women’s?)
Omit for time (In my over 20 years of operating an amusement park, I interacted with thousands of kids and adults every year. And while I tried to stay gender neutral when I came across someone who was androgynes, sometimes I slipped, some where okay, others upset, but I never treated any of them with disrespect. Why don’t we have different restrooms for democrats and republicans? From the outside I think we can agree that they look the same.)
What about a Tomboy, or a Janegirl? Or someone who is androgynous? Is someone in authority going to put a label on their forehead and hand so that they/we can verify which restroom they are to use? It’s ludicrous to claim that transgender males are going into female restrooms and transgender females are going into male restrooms for nefarious purposes. They don’t want that kind of attention and they typically don’t want to be in there any longer then necessary.
I went to watch an ice skating competition, a little girl and I presume her dad entered and I watched as it took him two tries before he found a women to take his daughter into the girls locker room to get changed. A little while later I saw a mom show up with her son and they both walked straight into the men’s bathroom/boys changing room.
One day at learn to skate a little girl asked me to tie her skates, I told her no, she asked why, I said I couldn’t, she asked why not? After a few more back and forth’s, she finally left and sought help elsewhere, now I certainly could tie her skates. But I face enough repercussions for just wearing a skirt to not give ignorant people more ammunition. In hindsight It was wrong of those people to make me feel the way I did and I hope one day that little girl understands (understood) why I said no.
(Others have told me that organizations such as Shaker Heights figure skating club enacted sexist dress codes to keep me from participating.)
My wife certainly doesn’t claim to be transgender when wearing pants, and nobody cares when she does. Yet when I wear an unbifurcated garment, I’m escorted out of the building. Do you know what my wife’s solution is to my skirt wearing? To move outside the United States, can you believe that? In the land of the free she suggested that we move out of the country. (Look around you, how many men are dressed the same compared to women.)
It doesn’t matter if this bill passes or not as it does not address the root of the problem. And the problem is not a girl that wants to be a boy that would need to use the boys restroom, or a boy that wants be a girl that would need to use the girls restroom.
The problem is that we are scared of men, and more so that we are ashamed of our own bodies.
Omit for time (Nobody believes me when I tell them about the discrimination I have experienced, and when I elaborate, they tell me to just wear pants. Why? Do they tell people of color to change their skin tone to white? Do they tell females to change their sex?)
And that’s what this bill, and some of the other bills are really about are they not? To suppress males from experiencing gender freedom as its all fine when we uplift women, yet turn around and squash males when they attempt the same. There is a saying that says, “Anyone can be anything they want to be” well, unless your male that is. We made all kinds of laws to bring females level with males, while being blind to the societal restrictions that we placed on them (men.)
In 2003 US Figure Skating changed the singles rules on women’s attire in allowing them to wear trousers in competition. And then in 2021 they removed all attire based restrictions across all disciplines, males however are still required to wear full length trousers. Look at congress, even they can’t make unbiased clothing rules.
Why is it so hard to treat everyone equally as individuals instead of segregating them into pre-made biased boxes and restricting them from doing something that harms no-one? (Why can’t we have unisex restrooms? What can’t we teach instead of preaching? What does one do out in the world where a sexless bathroom may not be available? Males get assaulted too, what about them? Why are we peaching instead of teaching? Segregation does more harm then good.)
I don’t think we need laws to protect white heterosexual males, but then again, maybe we do as they have been an unrecognized minority for far too long and even so called privilege hasn’t overcome that.
(It’s so easy to divide by sex when we fail to teach isn’t it?)
I’m getting old, all I want to do is skate, and perhaps inspire others to express their own freedom. I shouldn’t have to choose which restroom to use based on what I’m wearing or how I feel. All I want to be is me, and I just need to tinkle.
If you have any questions or need any clarifications of my experiences, please ask.
answer with “Chairman Mr. Merrin, to Representative xxxx, the answer is____.”
Thank You