Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine signs transgender bathroom bill

Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine has signed a bill that includes requiring schools and universities to designate bathrooms and other similar public facilities for exclusive same-sex use, based on students’ sex assigned at birth. 

 The requirement is part a larger Senate bill, according to the news outlet SignalCleveland.com.

The governor reportedly signed the bill Tuesday and officially announced the signing Wednesday morning.

The ACLU of Ohio has indicated it may sue to challenge the bill.

Republican lawmakers late last year passed a law barring doctors and other practitioners from providing gender-related treatment to minors, and barring transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

DeWine vetoed the bill in late December, citing the provisions dealing with transgender athletes. Republican lawmakers overturned it in January because they hold at least two-thirds of the seats in the state House and Senate. 

A county judge initially put the law on hold in response to a lawsuit from the ACLU of Ohio, but later allowed it to go into place while the legal challenge plays out in court, the news outlet also reports.