Ohio Gov. DeWine signed HB96, barring Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care and enacting two-sexes policy

On June 30, 2025, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 96, the state's operating budget for fiscal years 2026-27, into law. The enacted budget bars Ohio's Medicaid program from covering gender-affirming mental health services that "promote or affirm" a gender transition for transgender adults, prohibits menstrual products in men's restrooms of public buildings, and declares a state policy that only two "unchangeable" sexes, male and female, exist and are "grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality."

DeWine used his line-item veto authority to strike three other anti-LGBTQ provisions from the bill: a requirement placing LGBTQ-themed library materials out of minors' reach, a restriction limiting displayed state and local flags to Ohio's official flag (which would have barred Pride flag displays on public property), and a measure that would have cut funding from youth homeless shelters that "promote or affirm" a resident's gender transition. Lawmakers retain the ability to attempt an override of those line-item vetoes; as of the most recent reporting reviewed for this entry (mid-January 2026), no override vote on the library-materials provision had been scheduled.