An Open Letter to Ohio Rep. Angie King from One of Your Trans Constituents

Representative Angie King, 

I first messaged you over a year ago when you were initially running for office. In that message I asked, “Why should any transgender or gay person consider voting for you? What are your political positions on LGBTQ+ issues?” 

You didn’t respond. 

In fact, neither you nor your office have ever responded to a single Facebook message, email or voicemail that I have left for you. 

But I no longer have to wonder where you stand. You made your position very clear at the Celina, Ohio Pride festival on June 24, when mere yards from me you stood in solidarity with neo-Nazis, protesting my right to freely exist in my own state. 

Roll Call of an Ohio Anti-Pride Protest: Neo-Nazis, Christian Grandmothers and…a State Representative

After a jaw-dropping month of silence—and only after one of your colleagues continued to call you out on your proximity to such hate—you released a “statement” denouncing the Nazis. 

But that denouncement came after you introduced an anti-LGBTQ+ bill to ban “drag” in public. I put drag in quotation marks because the definition you provide in that bill could be extrapolated to make every trans man and woman in the state a drag queen: “performers or entertainers who exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s gender assigned at birth using clothing, makeup, prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts, or other physical markers.” 

Ohio Republicans introduce bill to ban drag performances in locations other than ‘adult cabaret’

This goes beyond your love of debunked anti-trans “studies” and hatred of performers breaking rigid gender stereotypes. This goes right to your own disdain for any 84th district constituent –your constituent – who isn’t exactly like you and your family. 

You, your husband, his brother are active members of a private online group that spreads hatred and vitriolic misinformation about LGBTQ+ people. This includes direct attacks on me … one of your constituents. When one of the members, a local “pastor,” unleashed a transphobic diatribe against me by name – intentionally misgendering me – your husband joined in the offensive. In his comment, your husband also misgendered me and used a scripture reference to dehumanize me by comparing me to a dog. 

Your group uses me and Small Town Pride founder Kyle Bruce as proxies for the overall LGBTQ+ community. We serve as convenient targets for your supporters to express all that pent-up homophobia and transphobia. 

Now, more than one year later, I repeat my original question: “What is your position on LGBTQ+ issues?” 

This time I neither expect nor need you to answer. Your position became clear on June 24. And your stance is made clearer still by your continued active membership in an online defamation group and your support of bills banning drag performances, trans girls’ participation in school sports, gender-affirming care and trans students’ access to restroom facilities. 

On Facebook, you describe yourself as “Proudly serving Mercer, northern Darke & southern Auglaize county.” 

Well, you serve only some of us. 

Your recent actions in your role as representative of the 84th District in the Ohio General Assembly reveal that you do not represent LGBTQ+ citizens and our allies in this region, and you have no interest in doing so. 

“Proudly serving…” 

You know who else is proud? All of the constituents you choose to ignore, protest and strip liberties away from. The LGBTQ+ community of your district is proud as hell. And our pride will never take a back seat to your bigotry. 🔥

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