Ohio’s “Protect the Children” Drag Bill Was Co-Sponsored by a Man Accused of Climbing Into Bed with a Minor

By Rachel Hurley April 2nd, 2026 Updated September 28th, 2026

The irony is not subtle, and it’s not accidental

The worst people on earth are helping to pass ridiculous laws.

The Ohio House passed HB 249 last week, 63-32, mostly along party lines. The bill - officially called the Indecent Exposure Modernization Act - expands the definition of “adult cabaret performance” to include anyone who “exhibits a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s biological sex using clothing, makeup, prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts, or other physical markers.”

Anyone who violates that standard while performing or entertaining at a venue where a minor could be present is facing charges ranging from a first-degree misdemeanor to a fourth-degree felony. The bill now heads to the Ohio Senate.

The stated purpose is protecting children from explicit performances. Keep that purpose in mind.

Rep. Angie King of Celina is one of the bill’s two primary sponsors. She’s said openly that a Pride festival in her district is what motivated her to write it. In 2023, King protested that Pride event in Celina, and members of the Aryan Freedom Network, a neo-Nazi group, showed up alongside her group, per the Buckeye Flame.

She was photographed a few feet from a demonstrator who kept using anti-LGBTQ slurs about the people attending. The Aryan Freedom Network organizes what it calls “anti-grooming demonstrations” and provides a youth program for members aged 14 to 17. This is the “protecting children” crowd.

Then there’s Rep. Rodney Creech of West Alexandria. He’s one of 44 Republican cosponsors on HB 249. In 2023, a minor female relative accused Creech of climbing into bed with her while erect and wearing only his underwear. Text messages showed her complaining that he’d been rubbing her legs and grabbing her waist.

Creech told investigators he’d gotten into bed with her but denied it was sexual. The special prosecutor declined to file charges but wrote that Creech’s “behavior during the time of the investigation was concerning and suspicious.” Speaker Matt Huffman stripped Creech of all four committee assignments in May 2025 and asked him to resign. He did not resign. He stayed on as a cosponsor of the child protection bill.

Planned Parenthood’s Danielle Firsich said it plainly in committee testimony: “You have a man who was just put back on his committees, who was accused of sexual misconduct with a minor, who is a sponsor on this bill.”

The ACLU of Ohio opposes HB 249 on First Amendment grounds, and the concerns are legitimate. The bill’s language around gender expression is vague and subjective - a police officer gets to decide what counts as a “gender identity different from biological sex” in any given performance or entertainment context.

ACLU Legislative Director Gary Daniels testified that the provisions are full of “vague, overbroad, and nonsensical” language that can be “easily contorted, twisted, and misapplied.” The chilling effect is the point: you don’t need mass arrests to make drag performers and trans people think twice about showing up in public.

Some people are claiming the bill criminalizes makeup on random citizens walking down the street. That’s not quite right. The text targets “performers or entertainers.” The ACLU raises the concern that vague enforcement could sweep in a cisgender woman in the park if a cop decides her clothes read as masculine - that’s a real legal argument about how overbroad language gets applied, not what the bill says on its face. It’s worth being precise about that, because the actual bill is bad enough without the exaggeration.

Rep. Josh Williams, the bill’s other primary sponsor, said the bill would be used to prevent transgender Ohioans from using gendered public facilities. He also appeared to call transgender people “perverts.” Democrats offered an amendment to strip the anti-trans language entirely. Republicans voted it down. Williams said the amendment “subverts the intentions of the bill’s sponsors.”

The intentions of the bill’s sponsors were apparently never really in question.

Sources

Correction, September 27th, 2026: This essay first said the House vote was 63-30 - it was 63-32. It said King protested alongside members of the Aryan Freedom Network, a group with chapters in 40 states - the Buckeye Flame reported the group’s members showed up alongside the separate group she was with, and the group itself claims nearly three dozen chapters. It called Josh Williams a co-sponsor - he’s the bill’s other primary sponsor. And it slightly misquoted him - he said the amendment “subverts the intentions of the bill’s sponsors.”

Update, September 27th, 2026: A few lines now say more exactly what the sources show - King is one of the bill’s two primary sponsors, the slurs a few feet from her came from one demonstrator, the special prosecutor’s words were about Creech’s behavior during the investigation, and Williams’s remarks on public facilities are no longer placed in floor debate.