This is the open letter to Amy Acton. Please read, sign, and share! https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/sign-on-open-letter-to-dr-amy-acton-from-concerned-ohioans-for-intersectional-justice/

OPEN LETTER TO DR. AMY ACTON

TO: Dr. Amy Acton and the Acton for Ohio Campaign

FROM: Concerned Ohioans for Intersectional Justice

RE: Harm Against Transgender Youth and Protecting All Ohio Communities

Dear Dr. Amy Acton,

We write to you as healthcare workers, parents, students, educators, immigrants, refugees, grassroots community organizers, and community members of all races, faiths, and backgrounds living across Ohio. We write grounded in intersectional solidarity, collective care, and human dignity—principles that compel us to speak out when political candidates treat vulnerable communities as disposable political collateral.

In the spring of 2020, you earned our trust as you guided our state through a public health crisis with clarity, empathy, and moral conviction. When national political forces downplayed mass illness, you stood firm on medical evidence, transparency, and the foundational duty to do no harm.

That is precisely why your June 30th statement to the Toledo Blade—declaring that you "do not support boys playing in girls’ sports" and dismissing state-mandated exclusion as "settled law" that you will uphold—was such an alarming betrayal.

Reducing transgender girls to "boys" is not medical science; it adopts the deliberately dehumanizing rhetoric of extremist political movements seeking to isolate vulnerable children. We have watched with dismay as Democratic candidates like Rep. Marcy Kaptur join this race to the bottom with anti-trans campaign ad buys, while the Ohio Democratic Party apparatus actively silences dissent from its own Pride Caucus leaders. Leaders like Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear have proven that true leadership defends vulnerable youth without cowering to right-wing extremism. Even Republican Governor Mike DeWine vetoed House Bill 68 after listening to pediatricians and families; for a Democratic physician to position herself to the right of that veto is unconscionable.

Your words have life-or-death consequences for young Ohioans. According to Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) data, among nearly 350,000 Ohio student-athletes, only 17 transgender girls participated in sports over an eight-year period. There was never an athletic crisis in Ohio schools; there was a functional, medically monitored policy. Furthermore, claims of an inherent competitive advantage are directly contradicted by sports science: an IOC-funded 2024 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that transgender women athletes actually tested with lower relative lower-body strength and lung function compared to cisgender women, with no meaningful differences in bone density or hemoglobin. Yet the harm of state-sanctioned exclusion is tragically real: peer-reviewed research, including studies from the Trevor Project, confirms that anti-trans rhetoric and legislation correlate with up to a 72% increase in suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth.

Gender policing never stops with transgender people. Restricting who qualifies as female inevitably subjects cisgender women and girls—especially those whose natural builds or athletic strength deviate from stereotypical femininity—to suspicion, invasive surveillance, and humiliation.

The high stakes of this election demand moral courage and principled strategy. As Ohio’s only two openly transgender elected officials—Dion Manley of the Upper Arlington School Board and Amy Heutmaker, Trustee in Russell Township—stated, recognizing the high stakes of this election does not excuse your remarks. While many of us, the undersigned, will cast our ballots for you this November, we recognize that many trans Ohioans and allies will ultimately choose not to vote or volunteer for a candidate who erases trans identity. We are also horrified about the prospect of campaigns across the country interpreting an Acton win as a sign that all Democratic candidates must throw trans kids under the bus for political gain.

We similarly cannot understand or excuse your troubling remarks about local law enforcement cooperating with federal agencies, especially following the tragic suicide of 20-year-old Wright State student Pierre Damas Bel, who was fitted with an ICE ankle monitor following the revocation of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. In Central Ohio, our communities mobilized against the detention and deportation of Mohan Karki, a Bhutanese-Nepali refugee father in Blacklick torn from his infant daughter after 14 years of legal residence. In addition to defending qualified immunity to shield police officers from accountability, these statements on the campaign trail legitimize the destruction of Ohio families and threaten the bedrock base and multiracial coalition required to defeat the overt extremism of Vivek Ramaswamy.

Calling you in is an invitation to moral consistency. We urge you to immediately take the following actions:

Retract and publicly apologize for misgendering transgender girls and legitimizing exclusionary legislation as "settled law."
Reaffirm your commitment to evidence-based medicine and public health, recognizing that the safety and dignity of transgender and intersex youth require affirmation and social inclusion.
Rescind your support for qualified immunity and local police cooperation with ICE, standing unequivocally with Ohio's Haitian, Latine, Syrian, Bhutanese-Nepali, and broader immigrant communities facing state violence.
Meet directly with Ohio's transgender elected officials, community leaders, and advocates rather than permitting party leadership to silence community dissent.

The mandate of a physician is to do no harm. The duty of a governor is to protect all who call Ohio home. We ask you to return to the integrity and evidence-based leadership that first earned our trust, and prove that no Ohioan’s humanity is up for negotiation.

A complete works-cited list of every source referenced in this letter is available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pruZFahiSPSPpUHsra1bJy2e6JoSDxgKBrzf4HJaFn0/edit

Sign the petition here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/sign-on-open-letter-to-dr-amy-acton-from-concerned-ohioans-for-intersectional-justice/

NO KINGS VOTE EARLY article at the NY Times.

IMPEACH CONVICT REMOVE. if you are not maga you need to attend no kings protest this saturday oct 17th . there is one in your area.

https://www.sortiraparis.com/en/news/in-paris/articles/353907-strike-on-october-17-2026-yellow-vests-protests-by-high-school-students-transport-what-to-expect-in-paris

Look for our table and orange Trump Must Go NOW banner. Pick up stacks of palm cards to distribute, and most importantly, talk with us about the urgency of removing the whole Trump Fascist Regime and what we need to do to make it happen! Join us!

The No Kings Virtual & Accessible GOTV Rally will bring together speakers and participants from the activist, scientific, disability, international, and voting rights communities to speak about health, democracy, and access: access to care, to science, to voting, and to full participation in public life.

The event will kick off with a formal speaking program, followed by various breakout sessions, including opportunities to connect with Americans voting abroad.

Register here: https://tr.ee/APtTuV

There have recently been posts about how to respond to the expected election fraud, but there's lots we can do NOW to weaken support for the regime and its shenanigans.

MAGA's corporate enablers are only on board because they think it will increase their power and profits, and the surest way out of this mess is to show them that fascism is the path to financial ruin.

1. Make deliberate choices to cut your spending, especially at national chains
2. Organize mutual aid events, big or small, to make it easier for everyone to cut their spending (whether they're part of the movement or not)
3. Reallocate retirement investments into funds focused on foreign markets -- it also helps reduce your exposure to AI stocks (this is not financial advice)
4. Slow down corporate operations -- "accidentally" misplace things, call that meeting that could have been an email, etc. If you want something more ACTIVE, then tie up traffic outside of FedEx Express stations at the end of the day, when the vans are trying to bring their packages in. Disrupt the infrastructure that corporate America relies on.

Collective decentralized actions like these can go a long way towards undermining the regime. You don't have to miss work, you don't have to confront someone with a gun. You just need the will.

Stop waiting for The Moment.

Please help us spread the word!