Ohio is the latest state to enact a bathroom bill that effectively bars trans people from using the bathrooms that align with their gender identity at schools.

Ohio’s bathroom ban was originally introduced in May 2023, but this summer it was added to an unrelated, bipartisan bill to reform a state program allowing middle and high school students to take college classes for credit. Then the bill sat until the legislature returned from recess after the November election.

If enforceable, this federal ban would exclude trans people from spaces that are meant to be among the most accessible to Americans, said Kelly Dittmar, an associate professor of political science at Rutgers-Camden University and the director of research at the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP).

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill Wednesday that will ban transgender students from using multi-stall bathrooms that align with their gender identities.

Gov. Mike DeWine signed the law out of public view over the objections of Democrats, teachers’ unions and civil rights groups.

The state is one of at least a dozen states to set restrictions on bathrooms for transgender students at public schools.

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed a bill into law that will prevent schools from allowing students of the opposite sex into restrooms and locker rooms.