Richelle Frabotta’s arms are covered in tattoos.
She sports dozens of colorful bracelets, trademark silver jewelry and a swatch of blue hair.
For the last 33 years, Frabotta has been a professional sexuality educator – and unafraid to stand out among her colleagues in higher education and public health.
“This is the work that needs to get done if you actually care about walking the walk of community,” she said. “I really love what I do.”
In 2021, Frabotta joined Public Health – Dayton Montgomery County (PHDMC), where she has grown and developed services designed to decrease health disparities among LGBTQ+ Ohioans via PHDMC’s LGBTQ+ Health Initiatives program.
Now – facing an unprecedented number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills at the Ohio Statehouse – Frabotta and her colleagues are tasked with creating and maintaining programming for LGBTQ+ people in an increasingly hostile social and political environment.
Plagued by limited funding and under the near-constant threat of public backlash, Frabotta says she and her team are more committed than ever to providing LGBTQ+ people with the services and programs they need to stay healthy and safe.
What is the LGBTQ+ Health Alliance?
In 2018, Frabotta’s predecessor founded the LGBTQ+ Health Alliance – sometimes shortened to the “Q+ Alliance” – gathering more than 160 entities across the county – from health insurance companies and clinicians to the University of Dayton and Dayton Public Schools.
Initially, the alliance was designed to ensure health care access for LGBTQ+ people and reduce instances of discrimination by providing education and support for health care agencies.
Today, Frabotta says the alliance serves both functions via three separate public health action teams: Wellness and Well-being, Engage and Educate and Lifespan.
“Technically, my title is the LGBTQ+ Health Initiatives Project Manager for Dayton Montgomery Public Health,” she says. “But I like to call myself ‘Head Gay.’”
Building ‘Q+mmunity’
The LGBTQ+ Health Initiative’s Wellness and Well-being team have designed, distributed, written and promoted surveys among Montgomery County’s roughly 27,000 LGBTQ+ residents to better understand their needs.
Currently, the team is preparing to launch a new health survey aimed at LGBTQ+ adults.
Public health officials will then use the data to develop more effective services and programming for LGBTQ+ people across the county. The team also engages with alliance members, reminding them why their active support is not only necessary, but life-changing for LGBTQ+ Ohioans.
“The health disparities are so off the charts,” Frabotta said, referencing the staggering rates of addiction, sexual assault and homelessness among LGBTQ+ people nationwide.
“Q+ people have been prioritized in not so good or healthy ways in the state of Ohio, and I think Q+ folks are perhaps struggling a little bit more than is typical,” Frabotta said.
Since 2022, the Engage and Educate team has organized and sponsored “Q+mmunity Days of Support” in partnership with Dayton Metro Library.
Frabotta said the support days have been extremely successful, but difficult to maintain without a budget.
Through in-kind donations, she and her team of volunteers are able to staff a table at local LGBTQ+ Pride events, order t-shirts and provide coffee or refreshments during certain events and meetings.
But with better funding, Frabotta said she could co-sponsor events like the LGBTQ+ Horizons of Aging Summit, which serves individuals within the LGBTQ+ community who may experience discrimination as a result of their sexual orientation or their age.
Often separated from LGBTQ+ youth in programming, Frabotta chose to combine programming for LGBTQ+ elders with programming geared toward younger LGBTQ+ people via her Lifespan action team.
“I realized we weren’t as effective segregating the idea of young queers versus old queers,” she said. “We conjoined them into a lifespan group and it took off.”
Maintaining programming for LGBTQ+ Ohioans
Currently, there are 652 anti-transgender bills under consideration in 43 states.
This year alone, elected officials have proposed 13 pieces of anti-transgender legislation at the state level – including the Ohio House Bill (HB) 68, which bans healthcare for transgender youth statewide, and HB 8, which would force educators to out LGBTQ+ students to their parents or legal guardians, regardless of suspected anti-LGBTQ+ abuse.
Researchers have found that the recent uptick in anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-transgender legislation has caused significant harm to LGBTQ+ people’s mental health over time.
During the Q+ Alliance’s upcoming executive planning sessions, Frabotta says she suspects the group will discuss new obstacles to care and wellness for LGBTQ+ Ohioans.
“The alliance will probably take a look at how to live in a new world with HB 68, ” she said. “When one suffers in our community, everybody suffers. This is what we’ve been handed. So what is our community response going to be?”
Regardless of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, Frabotta said she and her colleagues are committed to maintaining their services and programming.
“We’re still going to figure out how to get our folks and families and allies what they need,” she said. “One way or another, we’re going to keep on educating.” 🔥
Ignite Action
- To learn more about Dayton Montgomery County Public Health’s services or the LGBTQ+ Health Alliance, click here.
- To register to vote or to check your voter eligibility status in the state of Ohio, click here.
- To find contact information for your Ohio state representative, click here.
- To find contact information for your Ohio senator, click here.
- If you are a young LGBTQ+ person in crisis, please contact the Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor.
- If you are an transgender adult in need of immediate help, contact the National Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
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