Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's The Wall Builders Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Appreciate you joining us today. I'm Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. You can learn more about us at wallbuilders.com. You can find out about all the different things WallBuilders is doing there. And then if you want to just catch up on the radio program, head over to wallbuilder.show. And one of the things that we do is our Pro-Family Legislators Conference. We do that once a year and have a lot of state reps and senators. They come in from all across the country. They get great fellowship and an opportunity to hear from speakers. And there's a really, really good program to help get them equipped as they go back into their legislative sessions. And so later in the program, we've actually got one of those representatives that's been coming to our legislators conference for a while and doing great work up in Ohio. And so he's going to be catching us up on some of the battles that he's had there with the whole trans agenda. And so Gary click will be our special guest when we come back a little later. 

David Barton [00:01:01] Yeah, Gary's a really good guy. And in addition to being a strong legislator, he's got a great worldview because he's a pastor. So he's one of these pastors that's definitely involved. Well, and then let me clarify. 

Tim Barton [00:01:10] Just because he's a pastor doesn't mean he has a great worldview. But he is one of the pastors that has a great worldview, unfortunately, we, we know some that don't. In fact, I did a response video, earlier in the week to a, a state rep from Texas who was on the Joe Rogan podcast, who's proudly talking about going to seminary and he definitely does not have a biblical worldview. So just because you're a pastor doesn't always mean you have biblical worldview, it certainly indicates you should. But he, Dad, to your point, is one of the guys who has an incredible biblical worldview and who takes it with him in everything he does, which is really what all Christians should do. We should think through the lens of the Bible. We should see through the lense of the bible and we should live according to what the bible says, regardless of what our occupation and our field is. The Bible should be part of everything we do and certainly that's what Gary Click has done and is doing as a state legislature up in Ohio. 

David Barton [00:02:09] Yeah. He's, he's got a great church, great worldview, great involvement. And he took on the issue of transgender stuff for minors saying, Hey, this, this is not a good deal. And there's now so much medical evidence out. I don't know why this is a bait anymore. Quite frankly, what they know about what it does for the long-term harm of kids, what it is psychologically, what does the race increase suicide, depression, everything else, it's just not a good deal And he's in Ohio, which used to be a purple state, but is now really become a fairly reliable red state. And as such, you would think that this is an easy one to pass, but it wasn't. His, his governor stepped in and stepped on it. Um, and there was opposition from place you wouldn't necessarily expect, but the story of how it got passed really is a very good, very encouraging story and it shows really kind of strategically how you can go at things and get some things done. So. I think there's a, going to be a great story to this. It's in court right now, but I think the court's going to come out on the right side of this, but clearly this is a tide that's turning. And Gary has been there helping turn the tide, uh, having seen his, his bill killed and then bringing it back and getting it passed. And, and now we think it's going be upheld by the court. 

Rick Green [00:03:22] Well, Representative Gary Click will be our special guest when we return. Stay with us, folks. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show.

Rick Green [00:04:33] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. We are, man, I love victories, but we have to have tough battles sometimes to have those kinds of victories. And thankfully you have some good warriors out there like Gary Klick working in the Ohio, uh, state legislature fighting for truth. Gary, Hey, thanks for coming on representative. It's a joy. Thank you for inviting me, right? Well, man you guys, you know, I think people don't realize how difficult it is to just get common sense passed in legislation these days. The kind of things you've had to Probably say on the floor or in a committee room and scratch your head. I can't believe I'm having to say this, out loud. This should be, this would be common sense, but thank you, man. Thanks for standing up beause I know when you stand up for truth, especially on this sexual orientation junk, you get attacked a lot and so appreciate you, man, thanks for being willing to fight this battle. 

Gary Click [00:05:20] Well, you're welcome. It's an honor to do right. It's a honor to serve my constituents here in Ohio, but more importantly, it's an honor to serve the Lord and to do it with warriors like yourself and the Bartons. 

Rick Green [00:05:32] But hey, right back at you, right back at what catch us up on your session this year. You guys have already been out for a couple of months. I think, what were the major battles in this area? And then I think you just had a, you were mentioning before we went live, is it the Ohio Supreme court that has taken up one of your bills? 

Gary Click [00:05:52] Yeah, the SAFE Act. The Ohio Supreme Court, we passed the SAFe Act. It was vetoed. We overrode the veto. And then, of course, the ACLU, which I call the Anti-Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, they challenged it as we knew they would. We had a surprising win in the Franklin County Courts. Then the 10th Court of Appeals took it up and they put Just stay on it. And they found that it was denying healthcare based on a 2011 provision, where we put some things in our constitution to stand against Obamacare. So now they say we're denying healthcare. And so the Supreme Court overturned their stay. And now they just took up the case, the whole case, and they'll be hearing all this on the Supreme court. And we just actually got a, we have a six to seven majority on the Ohio Supreme court. All good folks, and I think we will prevail there, and that'll settle it. 

Rick Green [00:06:52] Back up and tell us, just describe the safe fact, a couple of major bullet points there, and then you said it was vetoed, the governor, the whiner, I'm sorry, I called him that all throughout COVID because he was as bad as Abbott. Did the whine, what was his, I mean, he's a Republican, he's supposed to be, you know, these guys act like they're standing for truth and on the right side, and then he vetoed it. What did he, what is his excuse? Actually describe the bill to us first

Gary Click [00:07:18] So, so first of all is saving adolescent from experimentation, you know, Robin Lundstrom is the tip of the spear on this down in Arkansas, Alabama had taken up, I think we were the third state to take it up. We were like the 23rd state to pass it, but it just says, you don't know, no hormonal or surgical treatments for sex changes for kids for minors. That doesn't seem like it's that hard. I had had some hints from the administration that the Dwine was interested in this, but every time I reached out, the only thing I could get from them was, well, the governor cares about protecting kids. That was the only feedback I could ever get. You know, like, hey, tell me if there's something that needs to be changed. 

Rick Green [00:08:01] Let me let me process that for a second representative that so let me I'm just processing that so the governor cares about protecting kids, but it's gonna be to a bill that's protecting kids I'm I just would make sure I'm following. 

Gary Click [00:08:15] Yeah, you got it. So we made it through the, you know, I had it introduced in one general assembly. It was HB 454 and we got to the point where we were not going to be able to get it done. And the hospitals kept saying there was no, there are no permanent results. There's no permanent damage. Everything just is reversible. This is just a pause and all the lies that they tell. And so I, you work with some colleagues and we made some amendments to 454 and we said, okay, you can give all these hormones and these puberty blockers as long as there are no long-term side effects. And the first people to come in and testify against it were the children's hospitals. They said, under these conditions, we couldn't do this for any child. I'm like, ah, that's the point I've been trying to make. We came back and introduced a stronger version of it in the next General Assembly, which was Hospital 68. And then there was some sabotage efforts to, even without my notice, they were uh, introduce a substitute bill that would have allowed, you know, gone back to 454 where we said you can do it after two years and so forth. And I said, no, I said the hormones and they said, we just, we'll stop the surgeries and that's all. I said no, the hormones in the puberty blockers are the core part of this bill. They said, No, it's the surgery. I said try me. They said okay. And they gave up on it and we, we put that part through. Uh, we passed it with a super majority. There were a couple of Republicans that were noes or that abstained from voting. And then it went to the Senate. They asked for a couple compromises. Maybe I didn't like them, but they didn't fill the bill. And then just as the Senate was about to vote on it on the House floor, I get a call from the governor's team to meet with them and the Children's Hospitals. And they wanted to say, let us do this in extreme circumstances. I had done a lot of research. I know Chloe Cole, Theresa Mosley, so many others I've talked to. We know, and I've talk to parents who've been through this, every circumstance is an emergency. Do you want a living son or a dead daughter? That's the common line that they use. And so I said, no. And they said, okay, the governor's going to veto your bill. So they told me that there and then, then he went on a listening tour. He listened to a couple of people that I sent his way, like Chloe, but, ultimately, he traveled all the hospitals and listened to their circuits. And he got basically said, you know, I've heard these kids have said they'd be, wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for this and they would have committed suicide. So in order to protect these children, I'm gonna veto the bill. 

Rick Green [00:10:55] And this is, you know, I mean, they initially said, okay, look, we'll stop mutilating children, but we're still gonna completely change their neurology and their hormones and not to mention, I'm sure you've looked into the, you now, some of these mass murder events that have been these kids that are on these very drugs that we're talking about here. It's a little bit like some of the other psychotropic drugs of the last 20 or 30 years, but I'm curious what the, with your colleagues in the legislature, are they, I mean, are they willing to dive deep on these issues? Do they just kind of roll their eyes at you when you, when you bring this and you, and you fight for this, or are they beginning to recognize how terrible this stuff is? I mean Chloe's a fantastic spokesman for this because you finally hear from some of these folks that went through this, um, it has been hard to find colleagues that, that will stand with you and actually, actually hear these stories and then get passionate about it. 

Gary Click [00:11:49] Well, there were certainly more qualified people. I was a freshman when I took this on. There were people with more legislative experience who kind of agreed, but they didn't want to dive into the fire and then there were others who were like, is this really happening? I, this can't be real. And it's just, you know, I'm a pastor, so they're like, this, just this right wing Christian guy coming in and making up stuff. And they weren't sure and they didn't wanna fall on their swords. And so we had a decent amount of support, but not enough support to begin with. But when I reintroduced it. We doubled the amount of co-sponsors that we had, and we brought people over the course of time through education and information and testimonies. We brought the receipts. We found some videos that the hospitals have produced that were just very condemning of the hospitals. And so then by that time, we had enough to get it done. And then the last day the governor could veto the bill happened to be my birthday. It was December the 29th. And just remember that day, Rick. Note to self, hang on. The phone rang early in the morning. It was about seven o'clock and that was the guy. I'm going to say, I'm sorry to call so early in the morning, he says, happy birthday. I'm gonna veto your bill. And for the record worst birthday present ever. Yeah. But he had the press conference later that day. I'm at my mom's it's over Christmas. I'm visiting with my mom. I'm her house. And i'm trying to watch the press conference on my little iphone you know and uh and it kept blowing up i had a hard time watching it all because my colleagues were texting me as he was in the first word came out of his mouth that he was going to veto this bill all my colleagues are texting me it's like i'm ready to go back right now let's override this veto and we actually overrode the veto with one more vote than the original bill actually passed with 

Rick Green [00:13:35] Man, that's impressive. I mean, that is, sometimes it's, you know, counted all joys when you experience various trials, right? Because it probably forced some people to get off the fence and weigh in. I'm curious, you mentioned his listening to her in the hospitals, having such an influence on him, that we dealt with that in some other states as well. Is it, as you dealt with it and you fought this, I mean, is it really just a money issue for them? I mean I know they make tons of money on these surgeries and on these drugs. And they seem to have just like glossed over in terms of what they're really doing to these children. Is it just being blinded by money? What, what's your take on it after being in the middle of this fight? 

Gary Click [00:14:20] I think it's a combination. Money is certainly a factor, but I think it's also just that woke philosophy. You know, one of the children's hospitals, the Cincinnati Children's Hospitals, their gender clinic was actually funded by the people who started this sex toy company called Pure Romance. And they they sell sex toys like Tupperware parties. Wow. And it's just a their philosophy and they have a trans child. And so they, they just drank the Kool-Aid and they believe in it. So they put their money in it and so it's a combination of money and wokeism, but it's certainly people who are not using common sense. You know, of course they're not looking at the Judeo-Christian values or the word of God. But even science itself tells you, you know, nature itself tells you, this is not normal. This is not right. We have the Cass report, you know. We could look at all the Dutch protocols and how wrong they went. You know, I did a deep dive into the science and the history of this before I even introduced the bill. And the facts are all on our side, but they just didn't want to believe them and they didn't want to trust the preacher had the facts. 

Rick Green [00:15:30] Last question for you. It feels like we're turning the corner on this. And again, counting it all joy when we have these kinds of trials, because on the other end of this, it seems to me, and you tell me if this is happening up there in Ohio, but it seems like this brought a lot of people off the fence into our camp. I think of the Joe Rogans and the Elon Musk and the people that, they're not necessarily with us on the faith issue. Maybe God's bringing them that direction, but this was so crazy. It was so over the top. That they started going, you know, this whole libertarian thing of I don't want government involved at all or even this kind of left wing thing, look where it's got us. We don't know what a woman is. We're mutilating toward it. I mean, it seems like it's been an issue that has caused a lot of people to come off the fence and get on the right side of these issues. Is that, are you seeing some of that as you've fought this battle? 

Gary Click [00:16:21] Yeah, definitely see in that, of course, that I think is one of the key things and Bernie Marino defeating Sherrod Brown in the Senate. And I think it was very helpful to, to Trump and our own JD Vance as well. You know, the commercials up here were the, were the you know, we're for you, they're for they, them, you know? And people understood it and that and even I'll be honest with you, many of the Democrats get it. I talk to Democrats all the time, you know, during my campaign, I spoke at the NAACP, and I have some of these black pastors come up to me at the NNACP and they're saying all I got to say is, what does the Bible say about this? And then some of my Democrat colleagues actually were told me, they said, hey, I just want you to know I'm with you on this. And I would say, oh, so you're going to vote with us? And he said, oh no, I got a vote with my caucus. He said, really, vote your conscience and your constituents, not your caucus. And then he says, well, you don't need me. You know, and then, you know, the elevator door would close and they're on the elevator with Republicans and they'd turn around and say, thank you, thank. You know they couldn't push the green button but they were with us. And you know I just wish they had the courage of their convictions. 

Rick Green [00:17:29] Yeah, no kidding. 

Gary Click [00:17:29] And somehow, you know, one of my black colleagues is a Christian, Democrat, but he's like, you know, he says, I can't take all this stuff into these black churches. They don't eat this up. And they're losing their own people, they're loosing their own base because they're so Backed out. Whoa. 

Rick Green [00:17:48] No, I was going to say, I mean, I remember, okay, I'm showing my age here, but when we fought the marriage battle in California, what was that? Oh, four, oh six. I don't remember anyway, maybe longer than that. It was the black churches that stood up more than anybody else. They were stronger on the marriage issue than the white church by far. And, and any of the rest of the evangelical church, for sure. They were more solid on that. So I'm surprised to even hear that. It seems like that they would be, you know. More willing to get on board. I wonder if those, those black members are hearing from their black churches, you know, what is, what are you thinking? What is going on? Just like those guys coming up. 

Rick Green [00:18:27] Just like those guys coming up to you at the NAACP going, you know, what's important is what the Bible says about this. 

Gary Click [00:18:33] Oh, absolutely. One of my black colleagues on the side, he says, Hey, I saw you went that. That was probably hard for you. I said, that wasn't hard at all. Said, they're all voting for me. 

Rick Green [00:18:41] Yeah. Love it. I love it. 

Gary Click [00:18:43] The, there's a Baldwin Wallace poll that came out right when I started this. And they showed that actually 46% of Democrats agreed with us on this idea of whether we should be, you know, medicalizing these kids with gender dysphoria. By the time we finished the bill, it was 54%. So it went from just under half to just over half through education. And exposure to these ideas and through, you know, just, you know, the, the people like Chloe, who are champions, you know, Chloe, the first time she ever testified was on my bill. And yeah, absolutely. And she was right out. She was 17 years old at the time. She had just come out of this, you know, she had her double mastectomy at 15. She was testifying at 17. And then there are a lot of unexpected allies in this. Many people in the LGBTQ community actually agreed with us. You know, there's a trans individual, Karina Cohn, a man who wrote an article, said what I wish I knew about sex reassignment surgery at the age of 19, you know, before I did this, and came out, they all came out as allies saying, no, they might not come at it from the Christian perspective or from the conservative perspective, but they still see that it's wrong. Like Jamie Reed, you know I've been able to become friends with Jamie Reed. The whistleblower from Missouri who shut it down there. It's common sense and the more people talk about it, the more people understand, you know, and as I wrote in my, in an article in the Christian post, you know, I don't blame my colleagues for not believing it when I first started, cause it is unbelievable. And they had to finally realize, no, this is actually happening. And we caught the hospitals in lies. They said, we don't give any re we don, this isn't happening. We're not doing it. We don't get any referrals and, one of our, my colleagues said, so you don't tell anybody that they can go somewhere else and get this and said, well, if we don't offer something, we might tell them where they can go get it. But that's not a referral. And we just caught them. Then the rights that they were lying. 

Rick Green [00:20:38] Yeah, I guess in their mind, if they're not getting money for it, somehow it's not a referral, but unbelievable. Gary, God bless you, man. Thank you for standing. You know, I really do. I think because people have stood up for truth on this, I think God's gonna reward that, and I think politically reward it, not just spiritually and all of those things. I think there's a turning happening in the country right now, and this has been a big part of it, but that would not have happened if people like you hadn't stood firm. 

Gary Click [00:21:06] Well, and I'm praying for a revival. That's what we really need in our nation. Oh, we're in it, brother. It's happening. And I'm grateful to you and the Bartons. I've been listening, like you. I listened on the cassettes many years ago. And so I just, now I'm just wondering when is David going to start the Christmas music? That's my next question for you. 

Rick Green [00:21:26] You know, this is the latest into the year we've gone without him playing Christmas music So he may do it at the end of today's show. We'll see we'll see Gary God bless you man. Keep up the great work. Look forward to seeing you soon, man You too. God bless ya. Stay with us folks be right back with David and Tim Barton

Rick Green [00:22:49] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks to representative Gary Click for joining us and doing such great work there in the state of Ohio and a guy sounds like, you know, continued battle. Got to fight it in the courts now on some of these issues, but,  but very good to hear. Oh no, somebody gave David the controls. Producer Justin. how did the Christmas music get into the program. Gary was exactly right, he predicted it, and here it is. 

Tim Barton [00:23:19] Well, those that could have seen my face would have known something was coming because we have some monitors that we are utilizing as we're recording. And seeing a choir and Christmas things happening, I thought, what is happening? I realized, I know exactly what's happening. My dad's going to play some Christmas music. That's what's coming right now. So we had a little bit of a heads up before we heard the music actually playing. Dad, not to digress. Just because it's July doesn't mean we can't have joy to the world. the savior reigns and everything else that goes with it. 

David Barton [00:23:55] I think what Gary's done is really good. I've got to point out that I think this is a big issue, biblically as well, not just politically, not just medically, everything else. Look, I don't believe that all sins are exactly the same in the Bible. I mean, there is a sin that you sin that's not unto death, Bible says, and then there's one blast from the Holy Spirit is one that is an unpardonable sin. And Jesus put this and said, look, if you offend or if you injure, you harm. You damage one of these little ones. It would be better for you to have a millstone thrown around your neck. And I think that when you start messing around with kids, especially young, pure, innocent kids, that you're in a danger area spiritually, not just politically, but spiritually. And I this is one of those big areas. Well, and Dan, it's interesting you say that too, because- 

Tim Barton [00:24:40] certainly we would acknowledge that that sin, all sin has a similar consequence and that it separates you from God. However, the Bible does seem to indicate that there's there's certain things that are worse in the eyes of God for various reasons and certainly when you look at at the value that God places on children and what we have allowed to happen in culture around us and you click point it out. The fact that the governor vetoed it and they had to come back. And yet when they came back, they had even more votes to override the veto. I talked about that, you know, these unusual coalitions that have come together as divided as the nation is, there are some things that are, are still overwhelmingly unifying when the founding fathers came together, for example, to do the declaration. And they said, we'll these truths to be self-evident. There was truth they united around, even though they, they had lots of disagreements, lots of different ideas. They had a lot of... Their own personal interests from their own states. But they said, all that aside, there's common things we all can agree on. These are the truths that are self-evident. And one of the things that fortunately is becoming more and more of a self-event truth for most Americans, and certainly in the case in Ohio, is that children should be protected, not experimented on, and great job that he's been able to do up in Ohio. 

Rick Green [00:26:06] Yeah, I think guys it is, uh, it is definitely a winning issue. You know, David, you mentioned the numbers and the, or maybe it's you Tim, but the numbers are out and, you know, definitely on our side on this. And so any of those elected officials that have run from this issue out of fear, like Gary was talking about, a lot of people were staying away from it, didn't want to take a stand, man, they need to know this is a winning issue now to get this thing right. And a lot people that were in the middle before have said, this is the issue that's pushed them over to the right and they're voting against those who have been supporting the mutilation of children. So great victory for Ohio and for Reps in a Quick. We got a lot of other reps doing the same thing across the country. Thanks so much for listening today everybody. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show.