‘Vote With Love’ is Ohio LGBTQ+ group’s mantra to mobilize voters

Whenever Joyce Strommen met someone new – restaurant servers, grocery store clerks or random people on the street – she didn’t greet them by saying, “Hello.” 

She asked if they were registered to vote. 

“My mom’s devotion to registering people to vote came from her sincere belief that if everyone with a good heart would just have the courage to act for what they wanted, the world would change,” said Erik Strommen of his mother, who passed away in 2017 at age 80. 

Joyce and her husband Bob were decades-long volunteers for the Cleveland chapter of PFLAG, the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization founded and led by friends and family of LGBTQ+ people.

“My parents were Christian hippies,” laughed Erik. “They really did believe in peace, love, understanding and making the world better.”

With Joyce’s oft-repeated mantra of, “Always lead with love,” the Cleveland chapter of PFLAG has launched the Joyce Strommen Register to Vote Campaign. 

The goal of the campaign is to channel Joyce’s spirit, using personal connections to encourage registration and voter turnout. 

This fall, the Cleveland chapter sent all nine Ohio PFLAG chapters and other participating LGBTQ+ organizations a packet of voter registration materials and “Vote with Love in Ohio” stickers, buttons, car magnets and hats. They also included postcards in each packet with Joyce’s story to help center love in the voting process. 

“Especially at this time of vitriol and nastiness that we’re being flooded with this election season, we want people to actually vote with love and not hatred,” said PFLAG Cleveland co-founder Jes Sellers.

PFLAG also plastered 15 Cleveland-area RTA buses with their “Vote With Love” banner, with the ads running from September 5 through October 5, the voter registration period. According to the Greater Cleveland RTA, those ads were seen an estimated 1,660,590 times.

PFLAG is hoping that the campaign helps change people’s mindsets when they cast their ballots. 

“We want people to walk into a voting booth, put aside the hatred we see, and support people with kindness and love fixed in their hearts,” said Sellers.

The campaign has also helped other LGBTQ+ Ohio organizations to generate voting energy with the populations they serve. 

“Voting is an everybody issue, and this collaborative marketing is an effective way to tap into that,” said Amanda Cole, executive director of Plexus LGBT and Allied Chamber of Commerce. “It’s so especially important for queer folks this election cycle, and the message of ‘Vote with Love’ will surely inspire more people to get out there and actually vote.” 🔥

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IGNITE ACTION

• To learn more about PFLAG Cleveland, visit their website here.
• Check out “Out at the Polls,” The Buckeye Flame’s voting guide by going here.
• To learn more about voting in Ohio, or to report illegal election activity, visit 866ourvote.org.
• To speak with a trained volunteer, call or text Election Protection via the Election Protection Hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683).
• 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.