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Ohio House Bill 68, currently in the state Senate, would criminalize healthcare for transgender youth, ban transgender girls from competing in sports and reject the global medical consensus of millions of doctors.

During nearly eight hours of public testimony at the Ohio Statehouse, doctors and healthcare professionals begged members of the Ohio Senate Government Oversight Committee to reject House Bill 68. 

The bill — which would criminalize healthcare for transgender youth and ban transgender girls from competing in sports from kindergarten through college — is set to receive a committee vote on Wednesday December 13 at 9 a.m. If lawmakers vote in favor of the bill, it will likely receive a full senate vote the same afternoon.

Today’s announcement by Environmental Court Judge Stephanie Mingo that she would recuse herself from hearing the City of Columbus v. Wilson 845 LLC (Greyhound/Baron’s) case should be of no surprise. And the residents of the Hilltop neighborhood who have been trying to do everything in their power to shut down the Greyhound/Barons bus terminal on North Wilson Road since July can thank their newly re-elected Mayor Andrew Ginther for breaking the law.

As Mayor, Andy Ginther is a party to City of Columbus v Wilson 845 LLC et al 2023 EVH 060592. As disclosed by Judge Stephanie Mingo on December 8, Ginther called the personal cell phone of Judge Mingo with specific needs on the case.

WSYX ABC 6 broke a story today claiming “Court docs accuse Columbus mayor of pressuring judge to shutdown Greyhound Barons bus terminal.” https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/columbus-ohio-mayor-accused-of-ex-parte-conversations-with-judge-central-ohio-elected-offical-greyhound-baron-bus-terminal-case.

Ginther and his administration believe they are outside of the law and permitted to influence judges as they please. This is just one more proven example of corruption that runs rampant at City Hall and why I campaigned to create an Office of Anti-Corruption if elected.

The news of this phone conversation between Judge Mingo and Ginther took place on October 11th during my mayoral election. How was this kept quiet for so long? And during this time, Ginther and his campaign were spreading contemptible dishonest lies on TV, social media and mailers about me. When in fact, Ginther was the one violating the law and trust of the citizens of Columbus.   

Today, the Ohio Student Association condemned the House Higher Education Committee’s passage of Senate Bill 83 — the Higher Education Destruction Act — with a vote of 8-7.

The Ohio House Higher Education Committee’s sudden passage of SB 83 this morning has left students feeling horrified and betrayed. Certain politicians have claimed that SB 83 was written with the interests of students in mind, but since students have made it clear that this bill is in direct opposition to their interests and lawmakers are still moving it forward, that claim rings hollow.

For months and months, students have organized testimony workshops on campus, written and submitted testimony, sent letters, met with legislators, and organized direct actions on their campuses and at the statehouse in opposition to SB 83. 

Editor’s Note: As described in the last Mary Jane’s Guide article, the Governor and General Assembly indicated that they want to make substantial changes to Issue 2, which passed on November 7th with the approval of over two million Ohio voters. These controversial changes are occurring at the last minute with the introduction of two bills, H.B. 326 and H.B. 341, intended to modify certain sections of the Ohio Revised Code that already contain the Issue 2 ballot language. This is a tight timeline if these modifications are to be made before December 7th, Issue 2’s effective date.

Here is Mary Jane’s planned testimony, should lawmakers hold hearings.

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December 4, 2023

Franklin County Treasurer Cheryl Brooks Sullivan announced the purchase of $2.5 million in Israel Bonds effective October 16 despite S&P lowering its credit rating for the state of Israel in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks. This is after $4 million purchase of Israel Bonds was announced in February. Franklin County’s total holdings of Israel Bonds is now $25 million – the largest of any of the 15 Ohio counties that purchase Israel Bonds.

“This is a solid show of support for the State of Israel,” Jay Schottenstein, chairman of Israel Bonds Central Ohio Advisory Council and CEO of American Eagle, said in a press release.

Yesterday afternoon, the Franklin County Board of Elections certified the official results of the November 7, 2023 general election. As an unendorsed major party candidate who was outspent by incumbent corporate Democrat Andy Ginther by over a 60-1 margin, I collected 36 percent of the vote with 76,989 total votes.

My vote total was the highest number of votes that an unendorsed major party candidate has received in the city’s 57 Columbus mayoral elections from the year 1816 to present, and one of only two unendorsed major party candidates to run for mayor in Columbus. The other mayoral election took place 76 years ago in 1947 between insurgent Floyd Green and James Rhodes who were both Republicans.

As a losing candidate, my vote total was the third highest ever recorded. The two election losses with higher vote totals were Michael J. Dorrian’s 92,054 in 1983 and Ben Espy’s1991 loss to Greg Lashutka with 79,083. I also outvoted former mayor Michael Coleman in his 2003 unopposed election and 2007 win over Republican Bill Todd and Andy Ginther in his 2019 mayoral election that he ran unopposed in. 

Back in September during a roundtable hosted by the Environmental Professionals Network, the executive director of Columbus’s Metro Parks, Tim Moloney, told the audience his “full-time job now is working on RAPID 5 projects”.

A surprising statement for some fans of Columbus’s Metro Parks, which is regarded as a public agency. Surprising because RAPID 5 claims it’s a public/private endeavor – led in part by high-end developers – seeking to connect more people to nature.

The lingering and disturbing question these Metro Parks fans have about RAPID 5 is: Does it have plans for putting ugly condos and soulless retail within the Metro Parks themselves? One RAPID 5 design shows a gondola winding its way through two Metro Parks where passengers can disembark for a brewery that is also within the Metro Park.

The City of Columbus requires residential real estate developers to provide “affordable housing units” in exchange for tax abatements. But the City has not provided any records showing they actually collect this information from these developers showing they truly do rent to moderate income tenants – this according to a longtime Eastside affordable housing activist.

Tax abatements allow a developer or resident to forgo paying property taxes in exchange for bringing jobs or revitalization to a neighborhood. But because the Short North has been one of the hottest real estate markets in the region over the previous decade, the question is: has Columbus’s most prominent corridor needed such tax breaks? Nevertheless, in 2018 the Shorth North was designated a Community Reinvestment Area offering a 15-year, 100 percent tax abatement if projects include 10 percent affordable units. A recent Dispatch article called Columbus the “tax-abatement capital of Ohio.”

Ohio’s House Bill 68 has been among the most widely discussed bills this past year. Called the Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act by its Republican sponsors, it aims to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors and prohibit transgender girls from participating on girls’ sports teams.  

Though it might seem like a grassroots bill unique to Ohio, HB 68 is actually part of a concerted effort by anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups to pass similar legislation in state legislatures around the country. Let’s take a closer look at the bill’s provenance:

Arkansas and Ohio bills are very similar

HB 68 is based on legislation drafted out-of-state by the Family Research Council (FRC), an evangelical Christian lobbying organization based in Washington that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group.