Ohio’s Republican-controlled Ballot Board decided on Wednesday that the proposed state Equal Rights Amendment banning discriminatory laws must be separated into two amendments, doubling the amount of signatures needed to get on the ballot.
The two amendments would be:
- To prohibit the Ohio legislature and local municipalities from enacting or enforcing laws or policies that would discriminate against Ohioans on the basis of race, color, creed or religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression regardless of sex assigned at birth, pregnancy status, genetic information, disease status, age, disability, recovery status, familial status, ancestry, national origin or military and veteran status.
- To repeal the current language in Ohio’s Constitution that defines marriage as “only a union between one man and one woman.”
Wednesday’s decision means that organizers now need to double their efforts: instead of collecting 442,958 valid signatures from registered Ohio voters across at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties for one petition, they now need to collect that amount for each petition.
“This is a disappointment,” Lis Regula, a member of the Ohio Equal Rights (OER) petition committee, told The Buckeye Flame.
Organizers have not ruled out legal action to appeal this decision.
“We need to come together as a leadership team and make decisions that are informed by logic and data and not just our emotions,” Regula said.
Quick Decision
Wednesday’s hearing lasted less than 12 minutes. Secretary of State Frank LaRose began the proceedings by stating that they were not there to “debate the merits” of the petition, only whether the proposal represented multiple amendments.
That admonition was discarded quickly as Ballot Board member Sen. Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) asked her first question.
“How is it the same purpose to allow biological men in the same locker room as girls when they’re not consenting…the same general purpose as allowing people of the same sex, consensually, to get married?” Gavorone asked Corey Columbo, an attorney from McTigue-Columbo law firm representing the OER organizers.
Columbo replied that everything in the petition fell under the umbrella of equal rights.
Organizers say that Gavarone’s loaded question was not a surprise.
“She loves scoring points for attacking the trans community, so this is on brand,” Regula said.
LaRose asked whether voters might want to support one part of the amendment but not the other.
“If that were the standard, then that would be true of every proposal,” Columbo responded.
The three Republicans on the Ballot Board – Larose, Gavarone and Ohio Republican State Central Committee Rep. Troy Schroder – voted to divide the petition into two parts. Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) and Rep. Terrance Upchurch (D-Cleveland) voted against the motion.
Organizers urge Ohioans not to get dispirited.
“If this latest action by Republicans gets people engaged because they are enraged, we’ll take it,” Regula said. “The long-term call to action is to stay engaged and aware of what is happening at the Statehouse.” 🔥
IGNITE ACTION
- To learn more about the Ohio Equal Rights Amendment, you can visit their organization here.
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