‘Men don’t need tampons’: Budget removes menstrual products from the men’s restrooms in public buildings

A seemingly minor provision in the state’s two-year budget would bar government entities, including libraries, from placing menstrual products in the men’s restrooms in public buildings.

The new prohibition takes effect in September, and the reaction to the move depends on one’s politics. Depending on one’s outlook, it’s either a commonsense change or an all-out war on the transgender community.

“Men don’t need tampons, and it’s kind of silly that we continue to have certain public entities that want to pretend otherwise,” House Finance Chair Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, said in April, the Dayton Daily News reported.

The change comes after the state House added one sentence — “No government entity shall place menstrual products in the men’s restroom of a public building” — to the operating budget, passed as part of an amended version of House Bill 96. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed the state budget into law in June.

The decision to include the prohibition in the state’s budget appears to stem from a state lawmaker’s experience at the public library in Dayton.

In April, Ohio Rep. Rodney Creech, R-West Alexandria, posted on Facebook that he and Ohio Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, tried to meet with Dayton Metro Library officials to discuss removing the feminine product dispensers from the men’s room. However, he said that library officials declined to meet with the lawmakers.

His announcement was met with mixed reactions.

“Well that’s a little bit extreme. I’m sure you guys could have found something that was more pressing than tampons in a men’s room,” one poster said in response to an April Facebook post.

“Perhaps you should poll your constituents to see how many of us actually care about this,” another commenter added. “Or are we not the ones that matter?”

In response to one of the comments posted, Creech said “this isn’t about the funding,” noting that a Dayton Daily News report indicated that its line item was $5,000 for these products.

“This is about making libraries open to all,” Creech said in the response. “I’ve had many residents reach out to me and they stated they haven’t taken their children to the libraries for years before or antics like this.

“Libraries should be politically neutral and welcome all,” the lawmaker added. “If these products are so important in the men’s room why don’t other places have them? …At the end of the day this isn’t about the waste of tax dollars as much as it is about the stance libraries have taken in certain areas.”

The state lawmaker doubled down in a statement to the Dayton Daily News.

“The left continues to push the idea that there are more than two genders, which is obviously unscientific and wrong,” Creech told the Dayton Daily News in a statement. “I’ve always led on protecting southern Ohio’s family values, from keeping men out of girls sports to limiting gender mutilation for minors.”

The change is merely the latest salvo in the Buckeye State’s foray into cultural issues.

In November, DeWine signed a measure requiring that the state’s primary and secondary schools and higher education institutions designate restrooms for use only by biological males or females.

Senate Bill 104, the Protect All Students Act, sponsored by state Sens. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, and Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, mandates that multi-occupancy restrooms, changing rooms, locker rooms and overnight accommodations used by multiple students must be assigned for use by either male or female students.

The law, which took effect on Feb. 24, 2025, made Ohio the 14th state in the nation to pass student bathroom privacy protections.