CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – A Stark County transgender woman is now forced to stop her candidacy, after she did not give her ‘dead name’ during applications.
Vanessa Joy was running for Ohio Representative of District 50. After submitting her petition to run, she waited for approval from the Stark County Board of Elections.
But after the Stark County BoE reviewed her paperwork, they found a discrepancy with the name she had used.
“Just knowing that I put in all that work and then other people put in work, and all shot down for this law that nobody seems to know about was hard,” Joy said.
“If any person desiring to become a candidate for public office has had a change of name within five years immediately preceding the filing of the person’s declaration of candidacy, the person’s declaration of candidacy and petition shall both contain, immediately following the person’s present name, the person’s former names. Any person who has been elected under the person’s changed name, without submission of the person’s former name, shall be immediately suspended from the office and the office declared vacated, and shall be liable to the state for any salary he has received while holding such office.
The attorney general in the case of candidates for state offices, the prosecuting attorney of the most populous county in a district in the case of candidates for district offices, and the prosecuting attorney of the county in the case of all other candidates shall institute necessary action to enforce this section.
This section does not apply to a change of name by reason of marriage; to a candidate for a state office who has once complied with this section and who has previously been elected to a state office; to a candidate for a district office who has once complied with this section and who has previously been elected to a state or district office; to a candidate for a county office who has once complied with this section and has previously been elected to a state, district, or county office; to a candidate for a municipal office who has once complied with this section and has previously been elected to a municipal office; or to a candidate for a township office who has once complied with this section and has previously been elected to a township office; provided that such previous election was one at which his candidacy complied with this section.”
“A lot of trans people don’t want people to know our dead names, it’s not that we’re trying to keep our past secret,” Joy said. “But, some of us actually have our name changes sealed because that name is not us. It does not represent us. It is dead.”
Now Joy is left wondering if the law that disqualified her in Stark County, could affect other transgender candidates in Ohio.
But Joy is going to take action.
“I’m working with the Ohio democrats and the PRIDE caucus to find a way to challenge this law, as it’s written,” Joy said. “To have it updated, and have the candidate guide updated and the petitions guide updated.”
Hello, everyone! First off, I would like to thank people for the outpouring of support I have received over the past week and a half. Running for office is a lonely venture, and I certainly was not expecting to suddenly become National news.
I am writing this due to the nature of the journalism industry, much of what I have told reporters did not make it to press. I have passionate thoughts on the state of the Transgender community in Ohio, and plan on addressing them here. Buckle up, I’m not going to mince words. At the end of this release, I am including links referencing documents I am covering.
The first thing I’d like to address is the law that impacted my disqualification. I have seen a number of headlines that state that I “refused” to put my deadname (former name) on my petitions. This is patently false.
The law in question is Section 3513.06 of the Ohio Revised Code (I early erroneously referenced 3513.271, which is very similar, but meant for independent candidates). It reads as follows: “If any person desiring to become a candidate for public office has had a change of name within five years immediately preceding the filing of the person’s declaration of candidacy, the person’s declaration of candidacy and petition shall both contain, immediately following the person’s present name, the person’s former names. Any person who has been elected under the person’s changed name, without submission of the person’s former name, shall be immediately suspended from the office and the office declared vacated, and shall be liable to the state for any salary he has received while holding such office. The attorney general in the case of candidates for state offices, the prosecuting attorney of the most populous county in a district in the case of candidates for district offices, and the prosecuting attorney of the county in the case of all other candidates shall institute necessary action to enforce this section.
This section does not apply to a change of name by reason of marriage; to a candidate for a state office who has once complied with this section and who has previously been elected to a state office; to a candidate for a district office who has once complied with this section and who has previously been elected to a state or district office; to a candidate for a county office who has once complied with this section and has previously been elected to a state, district, or county office; to a candidate for a municipal office who has once complied with this section and has previously been elected to a municipal office; or to a candidate for a township office who has once complied with this section and has previously been elected to a township office; provided that such previous election was one at which his candidacy complied with this section.”
As I have stated, I do not disagree with the spirit of this law. The law was designed to keep bad players from changing their names and running for office on the grounds of fooling voters. I want to make this abundantly clear: HAD I KNOWN ABOUT THIS LAW, I WOULD HAVEINCLUDED MY DEADNAME ON MY PETITIONS. Would I have liked people to know that name? No. But, serving the people of District 50 is far more important to me than the people signing the petitions and the Board of Elections knowing my deadname. The problems I have with this law are as follows:
1: As written, its language is discriminatory. Many transgender people who change their names have that name change record legally sealed by a judge. I tried doing this, but ultimately did not due to red tape headaches in Stark County. It does not simply impact trans folx, however; people who have changed their names to avoid an abuser, for example, would also have to list their former name, potentially putting themselves in physical danger. It is unclear as to whether or not the former names are also printed on the ballot. This creates a clear barrier to entry for people that have legitimate concerns about their safety to run for office.
2: When I changed my name, I did not do it to hide anything. I am extremely transparent about my past. I have posted publicly about my bankruptcy and my brief foray into sex work. Trans people don’t change their names to hide their past from others. They change their names to erase their deadname name for themselves. The transgender community at large has become the target of intense amounts of vitriol in society, largely thanks to the attempts to erase us by the Republican party. Use of our deadnames can put us at physical and psychological risk, as people can and will use it against us. In my case, the Canton Repository printed my entire deadname, and initially refused to take it down. Within less than 24 hours of my deadname being printed, far-right “journalists” started posting my personal history, as well as explicit photos of me online. Both Discord and TikTok have implemented policies banning the use of deadnames. Deadnaming and misgendering on these platforms is qualified as hateful conduct.
3: This law is not communicated to candidates. It is not on the petition forms (ORC 3513.07). It is not on the candidate guide. Even the boards of election do not appear to know that this law exists. Frank LaRose’s office noted that candidates are responsible for retaining their own legal council to be able to follow the law. Many candidates, myself included, do not have the financial means to hire a lawyer. There is no reason that this law should not have been mentioned on the candidate guide (and it hasn’t been for years), and that a place on the petitions should have been included to list former names. In the Ohio Revised Code, the petition form (3513.07) directly follows the law regarding name changes (3513.06). Code 3513.06 (and 3513.271) were upheld unevenly between myself and the two other transgender candidates that also did not include their deadnames on their petitions. This is where my complaint is, and this is the basis for why I plan on challenging the law. I’d like to ask people not to harass the Stark County Board of Elections. While I may not like their disqualification of my candidacy, they did follow the letter of the law. For my next steps, I am working with the Ohio House Democratic Caucus and the Ohio Democratic Party Pride Caucus to retain legal council with the goal of challenging this law as it is written.
I have been made aware of a violation of Ohio Revised Code 3513.05 by Mercer County Republican Chair Bob Hibner, in his protest of the certification of another transgender candidate.
If the Mercer Board of Elections upholds his protest, they will be violating 3513.06 (and 3513.271) in order to uphold 3513.05. This should be watched very closely by the press.
The Transgender community in the United States of America is currently in the midst of a state-sponsored genocide, brought on by the Republican Party. In 2023, a record 587 bills levied against the rights of transgender people were introduced across the country. Already in2024, we are nearing 180 bills introduced… and we are only 10 days into the year.
We are currently in stages 8 (persecution) and 9 (extermination) of the genocide of the Transgender community. The persecution portion is the incredible amount of legislation being passed to take away our rights, and the extermination portion is the fact that in the states that these laws have passed, deaths will rise within the community. Ohio is no exception, and in fact is becoming one of the most dangerous places in the country for transgender people to live.HB-68, as introduced by the “pastor” Gary Click (proving there truly is no hate like “Christian” love), directly focuses on removing healthcare access for transgender youth in Ohio. This horrible law takes medical decisions away from patients, their families and their doctors and puts it directly into the hands of Republican lawmakers. Additionally, this law also prohibits transgender girls from competing in school sports. In the 2022-2023 school year, only a total of nineteen transgender girls actually did compete in school sports.
These legislators are spending all of this time and money on NINETEEN kids. Doctors in the USA (including Ohio) adhere to the WPATH Standards of Care. WPATH is a multi disciplinary nonprofit that outlines the best practices for transgender healthcare worldwide. All major medical professional organizations in the USA agree with the importance of providing gender affirming care to trans people, using WPATH as their guidelines.
On December 29th, 2023, Governor DeWine vetoed HB-68. The backlash he received from the Republican party was immediate and harsh, and he followed that veto shortly with new proposed administrative rules that not only greatly restrict gender affirming care for youth, but also adults.
These administrative rules will make receiving gender affirming care difficult, if not impossible for transgender people in Ohio. This also clearly states to the trans community that this was never about “protecting kids”. Adults are now roped into this.
The Republican party is laser focused on exterminating the Transgender population. Adult shave also had their care removed in other states. Mark. My. Words. The Republicans won’t stop with the transgender community – we’re just the test group. The Nazis did this in the 1930s. On May 6, 1933, Nazi soldiers burned the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin, destroying over 20,000 books detailing the history of transgender people throughout time.
Trans people have always existed, and always will exist. We make up less than 1% of the population, yet one of the two major political parties in the USA are intent on eradicating us.
Trans people don’t CHOOSE to be trans. We just are. Our brains and our bodies do not match.
Trust me when I say this, in this culture of hate and persecution, no one would actively WANT to be transgender. We’re born this way. It’s no different than being born with brown eyes or green.
It’s a roll of the genetic dice.
As I said, we’re the test group. If Republicans aren’t stopped, they will move onto others. If you are not a cisgender, heterosexual, caucasian Christian adult man, you are not safe. I will end with this quote, as it pertains directly to the rapid rise of Fascism we are seeing brought forth by Republicans: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”—Martin
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