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Tag: anti-LGBTQ

  • New report identifies anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in Ohio

    New report identifies anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in Ohio

    Includes incidents outside Great American Ballpark.

    Close-Up of rainbow flag with crowd In background during LGBT Pride Parade. Getty Images.

    By:  – Ohio Capital Journal

    Nearly 50 anti-LGBTQ incidents happened in Ohio in a year, according to a new report by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

    GLAAD’s Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker (ALERT) documented 932 anti-LGBTQ incidents nationwide from May 1, 2024 to May 1, 2025. A little more than half of all nationwide incidents targeted transgender and gender non-conforming people.

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    These incidents led to 84 injuries (including one in Ohio) and 10 deaths, according to the report.

    ALERT tracked these incidents through self-reports, media, social media posts and data sharing from partner organizations and law enforcement.

    “This year, rollbacks in LGBTQ visibility and challenges to our rights are coupled with a sharp rise in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and disinformation across social media and political campaigns,” GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “It’s only through awareness, collective action, and community that we can turn the tide toward greater safety and acceptance.”

    The ACLU is currently tracking nearly 600 anti-LGBTQ bills nationwide, some of which are in Ohio.

    Ohio incidents

    Nearly half of the incidents in Ohio involved the Dayton Street Preachers hosting anti-LGBTQ protests at universities, events, street corners, Pride events, or outside the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.

    Many of the Ohio incidents involved Pride flags being stolen last summer.

    A transgender woman was injured while bartending a drag show in Columbus last July, according to the report. A man disrupted the show and was kicked out by the bartender, but the man punched the bartender and kicked down the glass door while yelling homophobic slurs, according to NBC4.

    Back in March, someone threatened to shoot up an upcoming drag show event in Columbus in the comments of a Facebook event, according to the report.

    Ohio bills

    In terms of anti-LGBTQ legislation, some anti-LGBTQ laws took effect in Ohio earlier this year, including banning Ohio transgender students from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. It also bans students from sharing overnight accommodations with people of the opposite sex from their assigned sex at birth at a K-12 school.

    Republicans have introduced other measures targeting the LGBTQ community this year.

    Ohio House Bill 190 would prohibit school employees from calling a student a name that is not listed on their birth certificate and would ban them from using pronouns that do not align with their biological sex.

    Ohio House Bill 172 would not allow minors age 14 and older to receive mental health services without parental consent. Currently, mental health professionals are permitted to provide outpatient mental health services to minors 14 and older on a temporary basis without parental consent.

    State Rep. Johnathan Newman, R-Troy, introduced both bills and said H.B. 172 is a follow-up to a law that took effect earlier this year that requires educators out a student’s sexuality to their parents.

    House Bill 249 would ban drag performers from performing anywhere that isn’t considered a designated adult entertainment facility.

    On the Democratic side, state Reps. Eric Synenberg and Anita Somani recently introduced the Marriage Equality Act which would place put a constitutional amendment on the November 2026 ballot that would enshrine marriage equality in the state constitution. This is in response to a constitutional amendment Ohioans passed in 2004 that defines marriage as “only a union between one man and one woman.”

    Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky.

    Megan Henry
    Megan Henry

    Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

    Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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  • Governor appoints former lawmaker to elections board who hyped up 2020 voter fraud claims

    Governor appoints former lawmaker to elections board who hyped up 2020 voter fraud claims

    Christina Hagan-Nemeth. Source: Ohio General Assembly.

    BY: JAKE ZUCKERMAN – Ohio Capital Journal

    Gov. Mike DeWine appointed a former lawmaker to a state board that oversees political campaigns who has publicly amplified debunked notions of election fraud in 2020.

    Christina Hagan-Nemeth, who served in the Ohio House before mounting two unsuccessful congressional bids, was appointed Tuesday to the Ohio Elections Commission. Her term runs through the end of 2026.

    A review of her public social media posts and talk radio appearances show she amplified the unsupported and repeatedly discredited claim that President Joe Biden somehow stole the election from Donald Trump. With the appointment, she now sits on a panel responsible for reviewing allegations of campaign finance violations and other offenses. The commission can levy fines, make criminal referrals, and intervene in campaigns at politically sensitive junctures.

    “The American people are entitled to an honest election,” Hagan wrote on social media Nov. 7, 2020, the day TV networks first projected Biden would win enough states to clinch the electoral college.

    “All legal votes should be counted. If you think these are controversial statements you must not agree w/safeguarding the sacred value of our individual votes as Americans.

    Ten days later, she made similar comments.

    “I’ve never prayed for fraud. But I have prayed that if it exists and especially to the degree to which its exposure can change the media’s projected outcome of the election…That it should be brought to light in a profound and irrefutable way,” she wrote. “I’m on team #EveryLegalVoteShouldCount.”

    Hagan, a Republican, did not respond to a phone call, text, or message to her personal Facebook account.

    DeWine has walked a tightrope since 2020 of denying the existence of widespread voting fraud but refraining from criticism of Trump — the leading proponent of the “stop the steal” movement. Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Jan. 3, 2021, DeWine refused to answer when asked why so many people believe that widespread election fraud occurred in 2020.

    He didn’t answer questions about Hagan’s statements, only noting through a spokesman that her appointment was recommended by Republican leaders in the state House and Senate.

    On Jan. 6, 2021, a crowd of hundreds of Trump supporters, swept up in his claims of a stolen election, violently stormed the U.S. Capitol seeking to halt certification of the 2020 election. Over the course of about seven hours, the attackers injured 114 police officers and caused about $1.5 million in damages, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report. Several officers died in the aftermath, including four by suicide. A Trump supporter was shot and killed after crawling through a transom window toward members of congress.

    Two weeks later, Hagan posted to her Facebook page an article written by Tony Perkins, leader of the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBTQ organization. The article depicts some Jan. 6 rallygoers as “peaceful protesters who desperately wanted to be counted.” Others, it states, weren’t peaceful but “were just as concerned about the future of elections after what happened in November.”

    Discussing the one-year anniversary of the riot on a conservative talk radio show, Hagan mocked a comment from Vice President Kamala Harris comparing Jan. 6 to other hallowed days in American history like 9/11 or the attack on Pearl Harbor.

    “I think the most dramatic word that we can accurately use [to describe Jan. 6] would be a riot, but not even, because there were really — nothing was defamed, nothing was attacked to any degree,” she said.

    In February 2021, Hagan shared an article from a conservative news outlet about the Supreme Court’s review of election fraud lawsuits.

    “SCOTUS now adds ELECTION FRAUD LAWSUITS to List of Cases To Be Considered… Not Loving the timing… But better late than never,” she said.

    She made similar comments a few days later, saying it “could get interesting” that the Supreme Court is scheduled to consider voter fraud cases in three states Biden won. The Supreme Court denied the request to consider the cases later that month.

    On a few occasions, she has accused Democrats of election fraud. In May 2020, the U.S. House passed legislation that would have prohibited states from requiring any form of identification to obtain an absentee ballot. Hagan said this shows that Democrats are trying to “rig the next election.” She made similar comments on talk radio about two bills that would overhaul election administration via prohibiting voter identification requirements, reinstating parts of the Voter Rights Act that were struck down by the Supreme Court, and more.

    “They are always, always aiming to undermine,” Hagan said. “And every single word that comes out of their mouth is orchestrated for that intentional destruction.”

    Elections commission

    The Ohio Elections Commission is a seven-member panel comprised of three Republicans, three Democrats, and one independent.

    On Tuesday, DeWine also appointed John Lyall, a Democrat, to serve on the commission.

    As recently as last week, Hagan circulated petitions to run for congress, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. But on March 4, she publicly announced she wouldn’t run for the seat.

    She first won office to the Ohio House in 2010 at the age of 21, where she served for eight years, the constitutional maximum. In 2018, she lost in a congressional primary to current Rep. Anthony Gonzalez — one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in connection with Jan. 6 and has denounced the idea that the election was stolen.

    At the time, she used a campaign ad calling for a need to “secure our borders” and stop illegal immigration from Mexico. Snopes, the fact checking website, later reported the ad used footage from an Italian TV network showing Moroccan immigrants crossing into Spain.

    Trump endorsed Hagan in her 2020 run for the same seat, according to WKYC.