Poorly written bill will ban trans pastors, church leaders. That's anti-Christian. |Opinion – The Columbus Dispatch

Ben Huelskamp is the executive director of LOVEboldly and the pastor of Blue Ocean Faith Columbus.
The authors and sponsors of Ohio House Bill 249 have created a piece of legislation which not only targets but illegally obstructs and seeks to regulate the faith and spiritual practice of progressive people of faith in Ohio.
The so-called “Indecent Exposure Modernization Act” is a reintroduction of a proposed ban on drag performances that failed in the last legislative session.
The new bill attempts to define drag performances as “adult cabaret,” specifically stating that adult cabaret performances include “performers or entertainers who exhibit 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.”
The bill provides for criminal charges, both felonies and misdemeanors, depending on the content of the performance and the age of any minors present.   
HB 249, like its predecessor, is a vague and badly written bill.
Many of the provisions in the bill hinge on one’s reading and interpretation of the words “performer” and “performance,” particularly because the bill concerns the legality of “adult cabaret performances” outside an “adult cabaret.”
If the bill only addressed, for example, nude performances, then it might be simple to define what characterized a “performance” and what didn’t.
But HB 249 says “performers or entertainers who exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s biological sex,” and “‘biological sex’ means the biological indication of male and female, including sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, gonads, and nonambiguous internal and external genitalia present at birth, without regard to an individual’s psychological, chosen, or subjective experience of gender.”
Using that definition and the extremely broad places that the bill considers public, can an otherwise cisgender man wear a dress in public? Can a cisgender woman wear pants? Can a transgender person simply go about their life?
If those questions seem like a step too far beyond the intentions behind HB 249, let me return to my original assertion: HB 249 targets, obstructs and regulates the practice of progressive people of faith.
Like many Christians, particularly progressive Christians, my faith teaches me that all people are created by God and in the image of God.
Therefore, all people have worth and dignity.
People of every race, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, ability, socioeconomic status and every other identity are called by God to ministry as pastors, preachers, worship leaders and musicians.
Any of these callings could be called performances and are often practiced in churches and worship centers where children are present. HB 249, however, would regulate our congregations and make it illegal for trans pastors and leaders to preach and serve.
We continue to hear from our conservative elected leaders in Ohio and in Washington that there is a coordinated program of anti-Christian or even anti-religious bias infiltrating our country.
While I think those claims are false, it is particularly interesting when conservative leaders in Ohio put forth a bill which, if passed, would do real harm not only to drag performers and the transgender community, but to people of faith and faith communities.
For that reason, I call on progressive clergy and progressive people of faith to speak up and speak out against HB 249.
Not only is the bill bad for Ohio, it’s bad for our collective faith.
Ben Huelskamp is the executive director of LOVEboldly and the pastor of Blue Ocean Faith Columbus. His writing has appeared in The Columbus Dispatch, The Buckeye Flame and the Good Men Project among others.    

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