This year’s legislative scorecard consists of two key allyship categories averaged together to determine each legislator’s overall score. Legislators are ranked based on these combined scores, and a grade distribution is applied across the scores of the entire legislature. The final grades reflect each legislator’s support for equality over the 135th General Assembly. 

Images are listed in alphabetical order, by the legislator’s last name. 

The first category is legislators’ QUEER SCORE, calculated by assigning point values to legislative actions impacting LGBTQ+ rights. These actions include sponsoring and co sponsoring bills, voting on the floor and in committee, and introducing legislation specific to LGBTQ+ issues. Actions that protect or expand LGBTQ+ rights receive a positive point value, and actions that harm the LGBTQ+ community receive a negative point value. The sum of these actions results in the legislator’s QUEER SCORE.

The second category is the legislators’ SOLIDARITY SCORE, calculated similarly to the QUEER SCORE. However, this score encompasses a broader range of social justice issues, with point values assigned to legislative actions related to environmental justice, criminal justice, reproductive rights, democracy, education, and more. Equality Ohio sought input from various issue-based organizations to select the bills included in this category. The sum of these actions results in the legislators’ SOLIDARITY SCORE.

Additionally, a BOOST may be applied to a legislator’s final score, increasing or decreasing a score by letter grade. This boost accounts for actions that go above and beyond the General Assembly, either positively or negatively. 

The 135th General Assembly has seen a stark increase in polarization, with overall median scores for legislators falling compared to the previous session. The number of middle-ground scores has dwindled, reflecting a growing climate of political extremism, particularly regarding issues impacting the LGBTQ+ community. 

Hostility towards LGBTQ+ Ohioans has sharply increased in this legislative session, which included a sharp rise in legislation targeting transgender Ohioans and willingness for lawmakers to either unwaveringly and unilaterally support or oppose LGBTQ+ and related legislation along partisan lines. Fewer legislators maintained moderate or positive positions on LGBTQ+ rights specifically, despite moderate voting records on intersectional issues remaining somewhat common. 

Notably, some legislators who previously supported LGBTQ+ rights have shifted, voting for anti-trans legislation like HB 68, likely influenced by electoral pressures and partisan alignment. Legislators who may have once been allies to equality are turning their backs on LGBTQ+ rights in a bid to secure re-election, especially in competitive primaries relative to their scores in the last general assembly. As we look ahead to the 2024 state elections for the 136th General Assembly, these trends highlight the need for strong, consistent allyship and the need for legislative accountability — including by voters who support LGBTQ+ rights at state and local levels.

*Single asterisks indicate legislators who took office late or vacated their term early in the GA and therefore have insufficient voting records to score: Brain Baldridge, Jack Daniels, Tex Fischer, Veronica Sims, Jodi Whitted, Frank Hoagland

**Double asterisks indicate legislators who are no longer in office, but serve a majority of the 135th GA and made substantial impacts on legislation movement.