Vanessa Joy, left, and Arienne Childrey, candidates for the Ohio State House, are shown in photos 1 and 2, respectively. Ralph Orr, via Instagram
By using a seldom-enforced law, election authorities in Ohio barred at least two transgender individuals from running for party nominations for seats in the Ohio General Assembly.
Authorities in Stark County informed Vanessa Joy, a Democrat running for the Ohio House District 50 seat, which encompasses the region to the south and west of Canton, that she was ineligible to run despite obtaining the required number of petition signatures from registered voters.
Election officials cited a 1995 state law that was barely known and mandated that candidates running for public office list any name changes they had over the previous five years on their nomination petitions.
Joy, who officially changed her name and gender marker on her birth certificate, admitted to Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS-TV that she was aware of the law’s provisions and would have complied, even though she disagreed with them on moral grounds. (The law has exceptions, such as candidates who change their names after getting married or who were previously elected to office after fulfilling the requirement during their initial campaign.)
Joy pointed out that neither the nomination petition form nor Ohio’s 2024 candidate requirement guide mention the former names requirement.
She stated that “something that is that critical should have been in the guidelines.” “The petition should have included it.”
Joy also argued that since it is no longer her legally recognized name, she should not be required to use the name that was given to her at birth and is known as her “deadname.”
Also, it is viewed as disrespectful and harmful to deadname or purposefully use a transgender person’s previous name.
“Our deadnames are dead in the transgender community,” she declared.
She continued by saying that requiring transgender candidates to list their deadnames on signature petitions had “undoubtedly” deter them from seeking elected office.
Since then, Joy has stated that she intends to contest the ruling barring her from running for the Democratic nomination. However, NBC News was informed by a spokesperson for the Ohio Secretary of State that Joy’s exclusion was justified and that it was unfair to criticize it.
Arienne Childrey, another transgender candidate from St. Mary’s Township, 100 miles north of Columbus, also had her petition rejected despite gathering the necessary signatures.
Robert Hibner, the chairman of the Republican Party in Mercer County, requested that Childrey’s nomination petition for violating the same law that eliminated Joy from the ballot be rejected by the county board of elections, according to NBC News.
Republicans, who have a sizeable majority in the state legislature and have successfully passed numerous bills aimed at restricting transgender rights, said Childrey, “As they actively attack us, they certainly want to ensure that we don’t get an opportunity to hold any of the power that they hold.”
Amy Ikerd, a representative for the Mercer County Board of Elections, responded to Childrey’s accusations that she is being unfairly targeted by the law because she was transgender by saying to NBC News, “We’re just trying to follow the law and keep the politics out of this as much as we can.”
Childrey, a finance employee, claimed that she would have included her deadname if she had known about the requirement for previous names.
“It’s awful to have to use your deadname,” she claimed, saying that it is an assault on who they are. “Would I have put it down, though, if my goal had been more important than my sense of self-worth? Yes, I would have in a heartbeat.”
At least three other trans candidates have filed petitions seeking party nominations for positions in the General Assembly, according to The Hill. They may or may not have complied with the name change requirement, but it is still unknown if they will also lose the primary election.
Democratic lawmakers are preparing to override Republican Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill that forbids transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming medical care and from competing on teams that reflect their gender identity. On January 10, an override vote was scheduled to take place.
In response to the barrage of policy that targets trans Ohioans, Childrey told NBC News that she had made the decision to run for public office.
Childrey will face off against Ohio State Representative Angela King (R-Celina), who has sponsored a bill to forbid “adult musical performances” from being held in open or where children may watch them, if she wins the election.
The bill, according to its detractors, is effectively a ban on drag performances and will likely be used by law enforcement to prosecute transgender people who don’t follow dress codes that match their assigned sex at birth. King even co-sponsored the legislation to outlaw transgender sports and the restrictions on gender-affirming health care.
“If you’re going to talk about us and pass laws about us, you’ll have to deal with us,” Childrey said.
Any trans member who is disqualified may run as an independent by gathering petition signatures and submitting them to local election officials by March 18 in accordance with the country’s candidate requirement guide, even though the deadline for filing for a party nomination has passed.
If she is disqualified, Childrey appears to have rejected the notion of running independently, declaring that she will run for office again using the Democratic nomination.
“The local Republicans can only hope that they delay having to face me as a result of this,” she said.
