Lawmakers quietly pass bill targeting transgender candidates

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story indicated the bill was voted out of the legislature and awaited Gov. DeWine’s signature. Although SB 71 was passed by the Senate and then amended in the House, the Senate did not vote to approve those changes before the legislature recessed for the 135th Congressional Session and thus this bill did not advance. We apologize for this error.

During the final hours of Ohio legislature’s 135th Congressional Session, House Republicans passed a piece of legislation limiting transgender Ohioans’ ability to run for public office.

Members of the Ohio Senate voted in May of 2023 to pass the legislation Senate Bill (SB) 71, a piece of legislation regarding electoral policy.

During the lame duck session on December 18, House Republicans passed an amended version of the bill codifying a requirement requiring Ohioans to list any legal name changes that occurred within the last five years on their petitions for candidacy. 

SB 71 would have changed petition forms to include a designated space to list former legal names — no such space currently exists on election paperwork — and expanded the ability of registered voters of any political party to challenge the legitimacy of any candidate based on the suspected existence of prior legal names, both of which could affect transgender candidates disproportionately. 

Targeting transgender candidates

Conservative Reps. Angie King (R-Celina) and Rodney Creech (R-West Alexandria) first introduced the legislation as House Bill (HB) 471 in May of this year.

The bill would have given voters registered under any political party legal footing to challenge the legitimacy of transgender candidates should they fail to publicly list their former legal names, whereas the law at that time only allowed registered voters from the same party as the prospective candidate to formally challenge the candidate’s legitimacy, for any reason.

Reps. King and Creech were the only two candidates for the Ohio House to run against transgender candidates in the 2024 general election – facing transgender candidates Bobbie Brooke Arnold and Arienne Childrey, both of whom narrowly avoided disqualification under the law.

A third transgender candidate, Vanessa Joy, was disqualified entirely from appearing on the ballot in Stark County after failing to list her former legal name on her initial application for candidacy, despite the form lacking a designated space to do so.

When speaking about HB 471 on the April 5th episode of “The Windsor Report” — a conservative talk radio show hosted by Jack Windsor, who regularly uses anti-transgender rhetoric to question both the existence as well as the mental health of transgender Ohioans — King directly accused transgender candidates of intentionally seeking to break the law.

“For a group that wants to talk about inclusion, they don’t want equality,” King said. “They don’t want to play by the same rules as everyone else. What they really want is special rights or exemptions to circumvent the law.”

King also repeatedly said that the law applies to all candidates, neglecting to mention that there is an explicit exception in the law that allows married women to omit their maiden names.

In 2023, Rep. King protested outside her own district’s LGBTQ+ pride event alongside members of a self-identified Christian group and the Aryan White Nationalists, a neo-Nazi group affiliated with the Aryan Freedom Network and organized Ku Klux Klan activity. She was also the co-sponsor of the bill to ban drag performances outside of adult cabaret venues.

Calls for reform

Democrats introduced their own legislation to help protect transgender candidates from discrimination throughout the candidacy application and election processes, but the bill failed to gain traction in the Ohio House.

Over the summer, newly appointed conservative Rep. Tex Fischer (R-Boardman) faced a challenge under the same law for failing to disclose his own legal name change.

Fischer – who is not transgender – changed his name from “Austin James Fischer” to “Austin James Texford Fischer” in 2020.

Ultimately, Fischer was cleared to appear on the ballot in the general election, but called for election reform regarding the rule.

“I also don’t think it should be necessary to publish someone’s deadname on the ballot,” he told The Buckeye Flame – using a term that often refers to a transgender person’s former legal name. “I don’t think publishing a former name really does the voters any good and only causes the candidate grief.”

Just before the house voted to pass SB 71, Rep. Latyna Humphrey (D-Columbus) rose in opposition to the bill, warning fellow lawmakers the bill would create “a pile of unnecessary work” for boards of elections across the state.

Both Creech and King offered remarks in support of the bill – neither of which mentioned transgender candidates, that they both faced transgender opponents or acknowledged Fischer’s call for reform.

As the Ohio Senate did not concur on the changes to SB 71, the bill would have to be reintroduced in a new legislative session.

This part of the electoral status quo thus remains: a requirement to list any legal name changes that occurred within the last five years, no space on the forms to list those names and the ability of Ohioans to challenge candidates of only those in their own party. 🔥

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