UPDATE: Ohio House Republicans override DeWine's veto of bill to protect women's sports

Republicans in the Ohio House of Representatives voted Tuesday to override Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill to bar biological men from women’s sports and ban gender reassignment surgeries or drugs for minors.

The Ohio House voted 65-28 to override House Bill 68, vetoed by DeWine on Dec. 29, 2023. The bill seeks to require public and private schools to “designate intercollegiate athletic teams and sports based on the sex.” 

The bill would ban schools, including colleges, from allowing “individuals of the male sex to participate on athletic teams or in athletic competitions designated for only participants of the female sex.”

Individuals who were impacted by biological men competing against women would have also provided possible recourse for women who were impacted by biological men participating in women’s sports.

[RELATED: Gov. DeWine vetoes bill that would have barred men from women’s sports]

“Any participant who is deprived of an athletic opportunity or suffers a direct or indirect harm as a result of a violation of this section has a private cause of action for injunctive relief, damages, and any other relief available against the state institution or the private college,” the bill states.

Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, a Republican, said ahead of the vote that he was confident the veto will be overturned, according to the Ohio Political Journal.

“As long as we don’t have a snowstorm, we’ll be voting,” said Stephens. “It’s ready to be in the law as far as our members are concerned.”

[RELATED: Protection of Women’s Sports Act passes House]

The measure will now go to the state Senate if the House.

Despite the veto, DeWine signed an executive order that bans gender transition surgeries from being performed on minors.