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

Political Analysis

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, 63-30, 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 the bill’s primary sponsor. 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 alongside members of the Aryan Freedom Network, a neo-Nazi group with chapters in 40 states, per the Buckeye Flame.

She was photographed a few feet from demonstrators screaming anti-LGBTQ slurs at attendees. 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 described his behavior as “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 co-sponsor, said during floor debate that 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 removing it would “subvert the intentions of the bill’s sponsors.”

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

Sources