Ohio Conversion Therapy Ban Advances as Senator Quotes Gaga

Ohio lawmakers held the first hearing on a bill that would ban conversion therapy for minors on 10 November, and the case for it was made partly in Lady Gaga lyrics. Senate Bill 71 would stop licensed clinicians from trying to change a young person's sexual orientation or gender identity — a practice every major medical and psychological body opposes — and it now has a committee record and a co-sponsor willing to quote "Born This Way" into it.

The hearing in the Senate Health Committee marks the first formal step for a bill that has been introduced before but never advanced this far. It also landed in the middle of a parallel fight: Republicans are pushing a separate measure, House Bill 693, that would shield parents who reject their transgender children and bar state agencies from describing that rejection as conversion therapy. The two bills define the same words in opposite ways, and whichever passes first will shape how Ohio regulates the practice for years.

What SB 71 would actually ban

The bill would prohibit certain healthcare providers — including licensed physicians, social workers, psychologists, counselors and advanced practice nurses — from engaging in conversion therapy when providing mental health treatment to a minor patient. It does not ban talk therapy, counselling or religious practice; it targets attempts to change orientation or identity as a clinical goal.

Enforcement would run through the state's professional licensing boards rather than criminal courts. Each board would set up its own complaint process and decide whether an infraction warrants penalties such as suspending or revoking a licence. That structure is deliberate: it keeps the fight inside professional regulation, where the medical consensus is clear, rather than in a criminal code that would need police and prosecutors to enforce it.

The Lady Gaga argument, and the counter-bill

Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, a co-sponsor, told the committee that young people should not be pushed to change who they are, then read from the 2011 song:

"I think these lyrics by Lady Gaga of all people give the best rationale for why conversion therapy is not only damaging to individuals who are exposed to it, but also demonstrates that people are who they are regardless of external pressures." — State Senator Nickie Antonio, Senate Health Committee, 10 November 2026.

Co-sponsor Beth Liston told the committee that conversion therapy is linked to psychological, physical, relational and financial harm. That framing — harm, not just ethics — is the bill's legal engine: it justifies licensing boards treating the practice as misconduct rather than as a protected counselling choice.

Why HB 693 is the real fight

House Bill 693 would protect parents who reject their transgender children. One section would prevent any state agency from "stating or suggesting" that psychological or mental health treatment which refuses to acknowledge a trans child can be called "conversion therapy". In practice, that would make it harder for regulators to classify rejection-based counselling as the thing SB 71 bans — even if SB 71 becomes law.

The two bills are therefore not simply opposing sides of one argument. SB 71 writes a definition into professional regulation; HB 693 tries to write a competing definition into the state's administrative language. If both pass, courts would have to decide which one governs when a licensing board receives a complaint about a therapist who tells a parent to refuse their child's identity.

What changes, and what comes next

• SB 71 has a hearing record. Supporters now have testimony on file, which is the minimum needed to move a bill out of committee.
• No vote has been scheduled. The committee heard the bill but did not act on it, and no further hearing date has been announced.
• The path is long. SB 71 must clear the Senate Health Committee, pass the full Senate, then pass the House before it can reach the governor's desk.
• HB 693 is moving in parallel. Its definition section is the piece to watch, because it could neuter SB 71 even if the ban passes.

What happens next

The Senate Health Committee must schedule a second hearing and then a vote before SB 71 can reach the Senate floor — no date has been set as of 14 November. HB 693 sits in the House, where its language on what state agencies may "state or suggest" will be the clause that decides whether Ohio ends up with an enforceable ban or a symbolic one. Advocates on both sides are now focused on the same question: which chamber moves first.

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Sources: PinkNews, "Ohio senator quotes Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' in push to ban conversion therapy for minors", 13 November 2026; The Advocate / The Buckeye Flame, "Ohio lawmaker quotes Lady Gaga lyrics in hearing to ban conversion therapy on minors", 12 November 2026.

Cover photo: State Senator Nickie Antonio. Photo: Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board / Public domain (Wikimedia Commons).