Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed legislation Wednesday requiring educators to reveal a student’s gender identity to their families and allow parents to opt their kids out of lessons that touch on sexuality and gender.  DeWine quietly signed House Bill 8 into law Wednesday with little fanfare. Asked about the measure during a signing ceremony for a separate bill on Wednesday, DeWine said LGBTQ young people are “welcome in Ohio, welcome in our schools and we want to protect them.”  “The basis of it, for me, is that if you're a parent, you want to be informed about what’s going on in your child’s life. Parents are the best teachers — first teachers are the best teachers. It's very, very important. I think that's what was behind that.”  House Bill 8, known to its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill because of its similarities to a 2022 Florida law, requires public schools to notify parents if classroom materials include “sexuality content,” defined as oral or written instruction, images or descriptions of sexual concepts or “gender ideology.”  The bill, which covers kindergarten through third grade classes, includes an exception for instruction that is related to “venereal disease education, child sexual abuse prevention and sexual violence prevention education.”  At least eight states have enacted laws that explicitly limit classroom instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity, and seven states require schools to notify parents of LGBTQ-related curricula and allow them to request alternative instruction.  House Bill 8, known to proponents as the “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” requires public school staff to inform a student’s parents if the student identifies as transgender or gender-nonconforming. It also creates a mandatory religious instruction release time policy.  Including Ohio, nine states require schools to reveal a student’s gender identity to their parents without exception, something LGBTQ rights advocates say puts young trans people with unaccepting families in danger. In five states, state law promotes, but does not require, schools to “out” transgender youth to their parents, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks LGBTQ laws.  Ohio’s GOP-led House passed House Bill 8 in December in a 57-31 vote, with three Republicans joining all Democrats to vote against it. The bill passed the state Senate shortly after, with a vote of 24-7.  “HB 8 had bipartisan opposition in the state legislature because it did nothing to create a school that welcomes LGBTQ+ Ohio students as they are, and did nothing to support teachers in creating a safe learning environment,” said Dwayne Steward, executive director of Equality Ohio, a state LGBTQ rights group.  Organizations including the Ohio School Counselor Association, the Ohio School Psychologists Association and the National Association of Social Workers’ Ohio chapter testified during hearings on the bill that such a law would harm LGBTQ students and put educators in an ethical dilemma.  “We have the expertise to tell you that this will irreversibly harm the mental and emotional well-being of youth in this state,” said Mariah Payne, of the Ohio Counseling Association, in written testimony submitted in May 2023.  “This legislation is harmful and hateful; I am deeply saddened that it was passed,” Democratic state Rep. Jodi Whitted, one of two openly LGBTQ lawmakers in Ohio, said last month in a statement.  Whitted, a former social worker, called on DeWine to protect “young people, public education, and the tenants of social work” by vetoing the bill, one of several measures passed by the state Legislature in recent years targeting LGBTQ youth.  In November, DeWine signed legislation barring transgender students from using school restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity, joining more than a dozen GOP-led states that have enacted similar laws.  He pleasantly surprised some LGBTQ rights advocates when, in 2023, he rejected a proposal to ban gender-affirming care for minors in the state, a move that distinguished him from other GOP governors put in similar positions and angered the party’s leaders, including President-elect Trump, who wrote on his social media platform that DeWine had “fallen to the Radical Left.”  The following month, Ohio’s Republican-dominated Legislature voted to override DeWine’s veto of the bill, which also prevents transgender student-athletes from competing on sports teams that match their gender identity. An Ohio court allowed the law to take effect in August, after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged it on behalf of two families with transgender children.  The ACLU is appealing that decision.