Meet our lawmakers: Gary Click

VICKERY — Prior to becoming representative of Ohio House District 88 in 2021, a seat he still holds, Gary Click, R-Vickery, was a pastor for more than 30 years. His duties in the Ohio General Assembly, however, have not stopped his tenure at Fremont Baptist Temple, where he began in 2006. In over 30 years of ministry, he has been involved in youth ministry, bus ministry, writing, radio, Christian education and lobbying Congress on behalf of churches and Christian schools. Pastor Click also served as a chaplain for law enforcement and in hospice care. In 1990, Click earned a bachelor's degree in religious education from Midwestern Baptist College, where he met his wife, Nanette. The couple have four sons — Nathaniel, Zachary, Garrison and Micah — and four grandchildren. Click's 88th District includes all of Sandusky and Seneca counties. Since becoming the 88th District's representative, Click has sponsored a number of bills, including highway designations, exempting watercraft from certain taxes, and allowing mayors to perform marriages, among others. He's also been a face behind certain controversial bills, including one which would limit health care for LGBTQ+ youth and which designates June 24 as Celebration of Life Day. "My message is a good message. It's a message I believe in, a lot of people believe in, most of Ohio believes in," Click said. Last year, Click introduced House Bill 454, a bill that would impact the LGBTQ+ community, which received national backlash for not referencing the community the bill affected. The bill would prohibit gender-affirming care from trans and nonbinary youth, including hormone blockers and gender-confirming surgery. After backlash and responses to the bill, it was reintroduced as a sub-bill with changes. The bill was updated with a transgender registry requirement health care professionals would have to maintain. As the 134th General Assembly was ending, Click made the decision to hold off on the bill due to timing. "When you introduce the bill, then you have discussion and meetings. It's how bills are formed, often. Sometimes you bring everyone in the room first and then you write it. Sometimes you put it out there and have some discussions and revise the bill along the way," Click said. Click said he has talked to people in confidence in the process of preparing this bill and in his pastoral capacity. He said he was not unfamiliar with people in the trans community before introducing the bill. When he introduced the sub-bill, he said it was a normal process for any legislation to gain support. "It's the process of how you refine legislation," he said. "Sometimes you give up things you don't want to give up but you think you have to give up to get it passed." Click's intention with the bill is to protect children, he said. He said it is not a moral judgement; that a child deserves the right to grow up before making mature decisions. "As a pastor, the thing I've learned about is to care about people. You look at what's best for the community, ultimately." Click does not see his religious beliefs or pastoral occupation getting in the way of his lawmaking responsibilities. Instead, regarding H.B. 454, he believes medical science is on his side rather than religion. "I don't have to separate my religion," he said. "I don't try to legislate my religion. I try to legislate common sense; conservative values." Looking forward to the 135th General Assembly, Click is now working on passing legislation that addresses the benefits cliff. A priority for him would be the Ohio Constitutional Protection Act that would make it harder to amend the state constitution. He said a number of outside groups take advantage of relaxed provisions to amend the constitution. Click said prime issues for Democrats are to disrupt districting and create provisions to gerrymander maps in redistricting. They also want to push abortion, he said, which, in his mind, is something that should be done legislatively and not in the constitution. "Our constitution is for big thoughts, big ideas based on principles," he said. "We need to protect our constitution."