Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed language in budget bill that would have forced homeless shelters to turn away trans youths

By: Megan Acker
Posted on: Friday, July 4, 2025

< < Back to

ATHENS, Ohio – Late Monday night, Gov. Mike DeWine used his veto power to strike language from the budget bill that prohibited funding from homeless youth shelters that affirm trans youths. 

In his veto message, DeWine said: “If a shelter has to call a homeless youth a pronoun that is incongruent with that youth’s gender to get that person into a shelter so that child won’t freeze to death, it needs to be done without fear of funding getting clawed back.” 

That’s phrasing Erin Upchurch, executive director of Kaleidoscope Youth Center, takes issue with.

“I feel like that was unnecessary to write or include,” said Upchurch, who felt the language was inherently transphobic. That’s not the only thing disturbing her.

The budget still contains provisions that Upchurch and other transgender rights advocates consider anti-LGBTQ. While shelters are now able to affirm gender transition, they are still not allowed to “promote” it without fear of losing funding. That language is frustratingly vague for Upchurch.

“I’m not interested in translating it. We’re going to keep doing our work,” she said. Kaleidoscope Youth Center offers housing services in Columbus, as well as other services for LGBTQ youth. While determined to continue Kaleidoscope’s mission, Upchurch doesn’t believe legislative attacks on such organizations are over.

“We’ve seen the last couple of years from the Ohio Legislature that they are so determined to make sure that LGBTQ people, in particular youth, do not get to experience life in a way that their peers do,” said Upchurch. “It’s a concentrated effort and so I think … a part of the playbook is to keep us on edge.”

Dwayne Steward, executive director of Equality Ohio, is similarly grappling with the budget. When asked what promoting gender transition entailed, Steward said, “I think you’re going to have to ask the governor that. … We are seeing it as … you can support a trans young person coming into your establishment, and you may call them the pronoun that they are saying they would like to be called. But you’re not publicly saying that you’re doing that.”

Making that distinction is particularly important at Equality Ohio, which runs a legal clinic focusing on LGBTQ issues. Steward is concerned not only by the legal impacts of the shelter restrictions, but also by a provision that prohibits Medicaid funding from being appropriated to mental health services that promote or affirm gender transition. Steward worries the lack of clarity about these terms will lead to preemptive compliance from providers who may not be impacted by the provision.

“The whole Medicaid situation is a complete confusing mess and I believe it’s been done by design,” said Steward. “The providers will second-guess, and they will pause, and they will possibly not treat or provide services to trans folks. And the vagueness and the complication and the confusion is going to lead to less trans people getting care.”

That obfuscation could create a critical barrier, according to Steward.

“We see from the data that trans folks need this care in order to live,” he said. “It’s really life or death.”

LGBTQ people seeking mental health services can click here for resources.