Sol Kersey (they/them) does not shy away from their uniqueness.
“My perspective is from the margins, not just as a transgender individual who experiences transphobia, homophobia and those kinds of negative impacts,” said Kersey, the intake coordinator and former Supreme Court fellow at Equality Ohio. “But I also experienced something that is a theme for a lot of people in this world, which is the chronic trauma of poverty.”
It is that very unique perspective that has helped drive Kersey to their current campaign to win a seat on the Cincinnati City Council.
The Buckeye Flame spoke with the candidate about their history with Cincinnati, what they would bring to the council and the strength of the LGBTQ+ community there in the Queen City.
To listen, click play directly below or read our (edited) conversation beneath the audio link.
Why the Cincinnati City Council and why now?
That is an excellent question. I think the reason why now is because, to me, Cincinnati is a very special place full of opportunity. I came to Ohio on my own at 18 and had nothing to my name, no support system. And over the years in Cincinnati, I was able to develop and build a family, friend group, neighborhood and a community that allowed me to put down roots and have a stable foundation in my life. And I think that Cincinnati is a very special place to do that.
I want to make a Cincinnati where I am the normal standard, where it’s a possibility for folks to come to this city, live their authentic lives and do so comfortably, respectfully and in a position where their neighbors love and understand them.
In your bio, this line appears right at the start: “As a transgender candidate, Sol will bring a unique perspective to Cincinnati City Council.” Tell us more about that unique perspective.
Absolutely, Ken. So I come from living at the margins. Like I said, I’ve been on my own since I was 17. I know what it’s like to live relying on Medicaid to be able to receive health care. I know what it’s like to live on SNAP and food stamps to ensure that I’m going to have food on the table. I know what it’s like to worry about [whether] rent is going to be covered this month and keeping a roof over my head.
My perspective is from the margins, not just as a transgender individual who experiences transphobia, homophobia and those kinds of negative impacts. But I also experienced something that is a theme for a lot of people in this world, which is the chronic trauma of poverty. And being able to combine my vantage points of being at the margins as both a transgender individual and someone who experienced legitimate poverty, I see things a little bit differently than most folks who have never gone through those experiences.
And while I don’t want to say I’m necessarily grateful for the difficulties of my life, they’ve given me a perspective and a vantage point that are very unique and very powerful and very uncommon in our political landscape.
Cincinnati exists in this very unique place statewide. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus all received perfect scores from the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipality Equality Index, but Cincinnati has taken that to a different level: declaring itself a “safe haven” for gender-affirming healthcare and earmarking $500,000 for LGBTQ+ youth mental health support.. What is the unique vibe there and is there more that Cincinnati could be doing for the LGBTQ+ community?
I think the unique vibe is that the queer community in Cincinnati is not viewed by most as some kind of external appendage. I think Cincinnati is really incredible because we fold into and interweave our queer community throughout the city. And there are a lot of great folks doing amazing work providing various social outlets and various health outlets for our communities.
It’s a very interesting combination of a city council that is mostly unafraid to do the right thing and a city population that knows what the right thing is. I think that those two things combined give us a very unique opportunity to provide for the queer community in Cincinnati that we may not see in other places.
That’s not to say that there can’t be more that needs to be done. There is a lot of education that needs to be done around various aspects of our legal system. I’m not trying to call out the judiciary, but judicial education is a huge component that could be useful in Southwest Ohio: educating our judges and magistrates on the nuances and unique experiences that queer folks go through when interfacing with the law.
Because let’s be honest, Ken, you and I both know, as queer people, we interface with the law in a radically different way than most of our cisgender heterosexual counterparts. And I think that is something that I would love to see as a further education of the entire governmental system in Southwest Ohio, not just having a competent city council, but having a competent judiciary, having a competent executive and having people who truly understand what the lived realities are for queer Ohioans.
As I tell anyone who will listen, I am obsessed with Cincinnati’s LGBTQ+ history, everything from the fight over Article XII to the Mapplethorpe banning at the museum. But Cincinnati is also the biggest city in Ohio without an LGBTQ+ community center. How do you network and navigate the community there?
It’s different because there’s not a center, right? There’s not a central hub, if you will. But there are organizations that are functioning all throughout Southwest Ohio and Cincinnati that work really well together.
I’m thinking of Cincinnati Pride, which is doing an excellent job. We recently had a town hall orchestrated by Cincinnati Pride that was very fabulous. We have Cincinnati Black Pride doing really remarkable work. Midwestern Lesbian is an excellent sister of ours who makes sure that all of the social happenings are on the calendar and everyone knows where to go. So it’s the cumulative work of a whole lot of people who are very, very passionate about community.
How do you navigate being an out candidate at this particular moment in time?
Well, I think that’s kind of like asking — and this isn’t saying it’s a bad question at all — but I think the question’s akin to asking someone, “So what was it like when you came out?” We don’t come out once as queer people. Coming out is a lifelong journey where we interact with everyone and we make that calculation to determine, “Is this a safe interaction for me to be open and out?” So it’s something that I navigate anew every day when I wake up.
But what is important to me is that I, as an individual, have the familial, the social, the economic and the community capital to put my neck on the line. And if something bad happens to me, I’m going to be relatively okay. And that is not something that most of our community is afforded. I can stick my neck out there and say, “No, queer people want this. This is the question that needs to be asked. These are the answers that you are looking for.” And not be afraid of something bad happening to me. It could. It may. And I’m aware of that. But I have the resources to be okay at the end of the day.
And that is how I choose to navigate as an out candidate: by being unapologetically out. Because when I take up space in that way, I am leaving room for our queer brothers, sisters and siblings to come along for the ride with me.
Let’s do some visioning. You get elected to the Cincinnati City Council. You are sitting there among your colleagues on the council. What do you see your role being on council?
I think my role on council would be to ask the other question. A lot of times when we have fierce debate — wonderful dialogue about public works, about what the city is doing, about what the city can and should be doing — the community comes and testifies. [Council] listens to each other as colleagues and does their homework to know what’s going on, but there’s that lived experience components that is still kind of missing.
What I would bring to this group of nine again is my unique vantage point. I have the ability to know what questions should be asked. When there’s not somebody in the room who has lived through chronic trauma of poverty, when there’s someone who is not in the room who is a survivor of sexual assault, when there’s someone who’s not in the room who has experienced misogynoir for her whole life, those are the people that I want to make sure I’m asking questions for. 🔥
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- Learn more about Sol Kersey’s campaign by visiting their campaign website here and following them on Instagram here.
- Check your Ohio voter registration status here.
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