In Ohio, four transgender individuals ran for state office, mostly in response to presented limitations on LGBTQ+ people’s rights. Vanessa Joy was one of them.
COLUMBUS, Ohio- A transgender woman was disqualified from an Ohio House competition because she omitted her previous name, despite receiving ample signatures to appear on the ballot. This raises worry that other trans individuals across the country may encounter similar obstacles.
In Ohio, four transgender people ran for state office, mostly in response to presented limitations on LGBTQ+ people’s rights. Vanessa Joy was one of them. She was running as a Democrat in House District 50 — a heavily Republican district in Stark County, Ohio — against GOP candidate Matthew Kishman. Joy legally changed her name and birth certificate in 2022, which she says she provided to the Stark County Board of Elections for the March 19 primary race.
However, Joy learned on Tuesday that a candidate must submit any name changes within the previous five years in order to be eligible for the vote, according to an obscure 1990s state law. Joy was unaware that the law existed because it is not currently mentioned in the candidate requirement guidelines on the website of the Ohio Secretary of State.
Joy claimed that giving her previous name would be equivalent to using her deadname, a term used by the trans community to refer to the name given at birth rather than one they chose that is consistent with their gender identity.
While Joy asserted that the law’s nature is to weed out bad actors, it also puts a barrier in the way of transgender people running for office who might not want to share their last name for significant reasons, such as worry for their safety.
Joy said, “I personally might have done so because being elected was important to me if I had known that I needed to put my deadname on my requests.” However, some people might find it difficult to enter because they do not want their names on the petitions.
“It’s dangerous, and that title is useless,” she continued.
Emails requesting comment on Thursday were not immediately returned by the Stark County Board of Elections or the Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office. Whether this law has applied to any current or former state legislators is unclear.
According to Rick Hasen, a professor at UCLA School of Law and an election expert, mandating that individuals share any name changes causes issues in Ohio but usually accomplishes the desired result. Hasen wrote in a message, “Disclosing a candidate’s former names used may make sense if they have something to hide in their past, such as criminal activity.”
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund’s vice president of social programs, Sean Meloy, stated that he is unaware of any monitoring efforts to determine how many states require name changes in petition documents.
The careful enforcement of it, according to Meloy, is the biggest problem.
Some states have increased their restrictions on transgender people over the past few years, including preventing minors from receiving gender-affirming services like hormones and puberty blockers. This has led to restrictions on which college restrooms trans children and students can use and which activities groups they can join in some states.
A record number of transgender individuals were sought out and elected last year, according to Meloy, and he anticipates that trend to continue in 2024.
The Republican governor of Ohio overrode restrictions that Ohio lawmakers passed late last year, but some Republican state representatives claim they intend to bypass that veto as soon as next week.
Some conservatives, according to Meloy, are attempting to silence trans voices.
He made reference to Zooey Zephyr, a trans senator who was barred from speaking on Montana’s House floor last year after refusing to offer an apology for threatening to have blood on their hands if colleagues who supported the ban on gender-affirming care did so.
This seems like a carefully enforced action to try to stop other transgender people from doing that, Meloy said, adding that anti-trans legislation is being moved forward more and more.
Joy is currently looking for legal representation after appealing her dismissal on Thursday. She intends to make an effort to alter Ohio’s laws.
She declared, “We’re going to see this occurring everywhere. If I’m just the start of it, this could turn into a snowball.” “For the transgender community, this is terrible news.”
