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Transgender Student Rights in Schools

By md spicer-sitzes on November 12, 2021 in Blog

Recently our team at Equality Ohio has experienced an alarming increase in calls from parents, educators, and school counselors observing harassment and mistreatment of transgender students in our schools. We invited a guest attorney and expert in Ohio education law, Emily Spivack, Esq., to weigh in on the dos and don’ts that help schools protect their transgender school community members and stay in compliance with Title IX.

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Featured post

Equality Ohio’s Statement of Solidarity

By md spicer-sitzes on October 12, 2021 in Blog

We believe BIPOC staff when they share experiences of racism and anti-Blackness. Knowing you will be believed is empowering. We call on ourselves as an organization as well as our partners to always create space for people who have been harmed by racial injustice and offer the opportunity for staff to honestly name their experiences. It’s not easy to speak up without knowing whether your colleagues will believe you and stand alongside you. We unequivocally  stand in solidarity with current and former BIPOC Equitas employees and commit to continuing the work of modifying our own organizational structure to model the working world we want to see.

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We Stand in Solidarity with AAPI Communities

By Siobhan Boyd-Nelson on March 19, 2021 in Blog

As Ohioans, we must continue the ongoing work to be truly anti-racist. Across party lines, leaders and communities alike are calling for an end to White Supremacy. Its destructive path has no place in public office or civic duty…

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Shawnee State Response from Equality Ohio

By md spicer-sitzes on April 20, 2022 in Blog

Equality Ohio is disappointed in the outcome of the recent Shawnee State lawsuit, and we affirm that all transgender and non-binary students, staff and faculty deserve a safe, respectful environment […]

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Leelah Alcorn, we carry your banner forward: Fix Society

By md spicer-sitzes on November 10, 2021 in Blog

In 2014, our society failed Leelah Alcorn. Again. And Ohio lost one more young person full of potential to the heartbreaking LGBTQ+ youth suicide epidemic. After years of feeling mistreated—particularly […]

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Statehouse Analysis: Work Ahead Of Us This Fall

By Kathryn Poe on July 29, 2021 in Blog

As our community started to come out of 18 months of quarantine and COVID-19 restrictions and celebrated Pride Month, Equality Ohio’s advocacy team was working hard at the Statehouse to defend against some of the most aggressive attacks on LGBTQ+ Ohioans we’ve seen. All in all, with your help, we were able to stop one of the two attacks. The second—a provision allowing medical providers to refuse services they deem to be in violation of their beliefs—was snuck into the state’s budget bill and ultimately signed into law. Now, we are focusing on mitigating the harm that our community experiences as a result of the provision’s passage while pursuing all options possible to overturn it. 

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Equality Ohio Supports Legislative Effort to Reform Cash Bail in Ohio

By Kathryn Poe on June 15, 2021 in Blog

Today, we submitted testimony on SB182, which will reform Ohio’s unjust system of cash bail. The current system has left countless individuals stuck in jail for years, even before their trial, not because of anything they did, but because they couldn’t afford to pay the bail set by the courts. Because these long pre-trial detentions are based on the inability to pay, people of color and LGBTQ+ people disproportionately experience the dangerous knock-on effects of Ohio’s cash bail system. SB182 and companion legislation in the House, HB315, are important steps as we seek to create a more equitable and just legal system in Ohio.

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Caring for Ourselves

By Siobhan Boyd-Nelson on April 20, 2021 in News

Today, we have witnessed a single act toward justice, and our hearts are still heavy. We celebrate the valuing of George Floyd’s life, and we are still in deep mourning […]

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Again We Pause

By md spicer-sitzes on April 15, 2021 in Community

We pause once again, this time to honor the lives of Daunte Wright and Miles Jackson, two young Black men whose lives faced too many unnecessary risks. We grieve the […]

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A candle in mourning

Ohio Fairness Act reintroduced with strongest ever bipartisan coalition

By Kathryn Poe on March 4, 2021 in Blog

This morning, a bipartisan, bicameral group of Ohio legislators announced that they are reintroducing the Ohio Fairness Act at the Ohio Statehouse, joined by faith leaders, community advocates, and over 1,000 businesses across the state demanding we protect LGBTQ+ Ohioans from discrimination.

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Ohio Representatives Introduce Extreme Attack on Transgender Young People

By Kathryn Poe on February 5, 2021 in Blog

The 134th General Assembly is only a month old, and extreme anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers have already begun their attacks on transgender youth. This morning, Representatives Jena Powell and Reggie Stoltzfus reintroduced their blanket ban on transgender athletes in high school and college sports. In the face of an ongoing pandemic and calls for meaningful criminal justice reform, Reps. Powell (R-Arcanum) and Stoltzfus (R-Paris Township) wasted no time in bringing back this incredibly dangerous and discriminatory bill.

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Ohio Senators Introduce Bill to Protect Minors from Harmful Practice of so-called “Conversion Therapy”

By Kathryn Poe on February 4, 2021 in Blog

Today, members of the Ohio Senate, led by Senators Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) and Tina Maharath (D-Canal Winchester), introduced SB 50, which would prohibit the fraudulent and dangerous practice of attempting to change a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, sometimes called “conversion therapy” or “reparative therapy”.

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Ohio Fairness Act falls victim to effects of Statehouse scandal and COVID-19

By Kathryn Poe on December 23, 2020 in Blog

For years, LGBTQ+ people have been involuntary victims of various political conflicts, and unfortunately, the Ohio Fairness Act suffered that same fate this General Assembly. Despite knowing that they had the support they needed to pass the Ohio Fairness Act, these leaders let politics prevent the Legislature from doing what is right for Ohio in Lame Duck.

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Bill to ban transgender athletes from high school and college sports receives statutorily required first hearing

By Kathryn Poe on December 3, 2020 in Blog

Today, the Ohio House Primary & Secondary Education Committee held a sponsor testimony hearing on HB527, which seeks to ban transgender athletes from high school and college athletics. The bill, sponsored by Representatives Jane Powell and Reggie Stoltzfus, is one of the most extreme legislative attacks on transgender Ohioans that we have seen. Today, those Representatives were given an opportunity to share their anti-transgender rhetoric with the committee and the state.

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2020 General Election Analysis: Wins, losses, and opportunities for the future

By Kathryn Poe on November 5, 2020 in Blog

We made it. Voting in the 2020 Election has finally concluded, and Ohioans’ voices have been heard. There’s a lot to talk about and a lot we still don’t know yet, but Equality Ohio’s policy team has been up with you through the past 48 hours to help figure out just what happened and how it will impact LGBTQ+ Ohioans.

As a reminder, Equality Ohio is a non-partisan organization that does not endorse candidates or parties. We do have an Elected Official Scorecard that graded candidates for President and Vice President, as well as incumbent members of the Ohio Legislature. We’ll use those grades a lot in this analysis.

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Endorsement: Vote Yes on Columbus Issue 2

By Kathryn Poe on October 22, 2020 in Blog

Equality Ohio stands firmly in solidarity with those demanding police accountability in Columbus and urges a Yes vote on Issue 2 as part of the ongoing dialogue and process to increase police accountability.

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