LGBT Rights

09.26.18

Cuyahoga County Council Passed Legislation that Protects the LGBT Community

By Celina Coming

On September 25, 2018 the Cuyahoga County Council passed an LGBT Non-Discrimination Ordinance by a vote of 8-3. 

The words represented in this blog reflect the sentiments that the ACLU of Ohio’s General Counsel Susan Becker presented at the Cuyahoga County Council meeting on September 25, 2018.

03.30.18

Transgender Day of Visibility 2018

By Dan Rogan

In 2009, the Transgender Day of Visibility was created by transgender activist Rachel Crandall-Crocker, who saw a gap in the celebration of transgender individuals among the holidays celebrating LGBTQ+ people. The only day representing transgender individuals back then was the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which is celebrated on November 20.

08.25.17

LGBT Advocacy In Real Time

By Dan Rogan

Remember the empowering and beautiful slogan that went viral in June 2015, “Love Wins?” Can you believe it’s been more than two years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, confirming the constitutional right to marriage equality?

03.31.17

Today is the International Transgender Day of Visibility

By James Kosmatka

The International Transgender Day of Visibility gives us all an opportunity to show our support for transgender/gender non-conforming (GNC) people while celebrating the incredible tenacity, brilliance and beauty of the transgender/GNC community.

The ACLU of Ohio is deeply committed to supporting transgender visibility and advocacy every day.

03.01.17

Religious Liberty Does Not Require Discrimination

By James Kosmatka

After being halted last session, the so-called Pastor Protection Act appears primed to receive a full vote in the Ohio House of Representatives. The stated purpose is to protect religious officials from being forced to perform marriages that are against their beliefs.

02.13.17

“Transgender Spotlight”: You Have Questions, We Have Answers

By James Kosmatka

“In my opinion, the most pressing issue for the trans community is that it is 100% misunderstood,” says Christian, a transgender Ohioan and star of the ACLU of Ohio’s video short film series, Transgender Spotlight.

The ACLU of Ohio agrees.

10.12.16

Voting While Trans: Tips for a Successful Election Day

By James Kosmatka

People who identify as transgender or gender nonconforming (GNC) are expected to clarify, justify and apologize for their identity every day. For many, inappropriate personal questions are a daily reality.  It’s no surprise then, to hear that these same dehumanizing hurdles have worked their way into our polling places.

06.10.16

Transgender People Have Always Existed

By James Kosmatka

The transgender community has been getting a lot of attention lately. Recently, the majority of this attention has centered on public accommodations and the rights of transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. All of this media attention leads many to believe that this new phenomenon of “being transgender” is a passing fad, that we’re giving too much attention to a new group of people that have just popped up.

04.22.16

Meeting a Transgender Person Changes Minds

By James Kosmatka

The invisibility which used to cloak the transgender community is starting to fade as transgender people gain more presence in the public eye. Too often they are seen through the prism of violence, but we have also witnessed an increasing amount of public figures come out as transgender in recent years.

03.04.16

Love is Not Protected in Fair Housing

By Lisa Wurm

“Love is love” was the refrain we heard last year as gay marriage became legal in the United States. Unfortunately, love is not protected in fair housing.

LGBTQ Renters in Cuyahoga County Face Persistent Discrimination

In the majority of states in the U.S.,

01.22.16

Terms of Equality: Housing and Employment

By Lisa Wurm

Did you know that gay and transgender people in Ohio can be fired or denied housing simply for who they are or who they love?

After the marriage equality ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, LGBT rights activists have continued to raise awareness about the vulnerability of gay and transgender people in the workplace.

01.11.16

Terms of Equality: What is a Public Accommodation?

By Lisa Wurm

While marriage equality became the law of the land last year, the fight for full equality for people who are gay or transgender continues on. This is especially true in Ohio, where you can be fired from your job, kicked out of your home, or denied basic services at any business simply because of who your partner is, or how you express your gender.

11.23.15

Discrimination Against LGBT People is Still Legal in Ohio

By Chris Geggie

The Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) was voted down in a referendum at the beginning of this month. HERO extended nondiscrimination protections to include numerous classes of people on the basis of race, age, military status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and pregnancy.

09.02.15

Ohio’s Highest Court Advises Judges to Honor Obergefell

By Steve David

Do your job.

That, in a nutshell, is the advice offered recently by the Supreme Court of Ohio’s Board of Professional Conduct to judges who decline to marry same-sex couples based on their personal, moral, or religious beliefs.

The board’s advisory opinion provided guidance on two questions:

• May a judge who performs civil marriages refuse same-sex couples while continuing to marry opposite sex couples?

08.28.15

Gay Scout Leaders Mostly Welcome in BSA

By Steve David

Brian Peffly

On July 27, a century-old organization made a momentous change in its membership—the Boy Scouts of America lifted the ban on gay adults as Scout leaders and employees. The decision means that more people will be able to remain true to who they are without fear of dismissal.

08.14.15

Clash of Obergefell Opinions Offers Lessons for Ongoing LGBT Equality Battles

By Lisa Wurm

In Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the constitution guarantees the rights and responsibility of marriage to same-sex couples.

Now that marriage equality is the law of the land, let’s take a look at what the clash of judicial opinions tells us of the justices’ perceptions of gay and lesbian couples, and their families, and what they could mean to equality going forward.

07.10.15

Then and Now: Censoring Employee Speech

By Dan Rogan

The ACLU has always protected freedom of speech. Throughout history this has dealt with issues that were, at that time, considered uncomfortable.

Our future leaders, millennials, have been identified as the most socially liberal generation yet. So as social conscience is changing, uncomfortable issues are becoming comfortable, and those on the wrong side of history will be pushed out of the mainstream of our national zeitgeist.

06.26.15

Love Wins in Ohio and the Nation

By Ellen Kubit

Today, Friday, June 26, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that state bans against same-sex marriage couples are unconstitutional.  In other words, today, for the first time in history, our country must recognize—everywhere—that love is free.

Here at the ACLU of Ohio, we are absolutely ecstatic.

06.15.15

A Polite Backlash

By Steve David

In case you missed it, intolerance is out of style.

The reveal of Caitlyn Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover reminded people that in most circles publicly denouncing someone because of their identity is no longer acceptable. While there is no shortage of open bigotry to be found on the Internet, the national dialogue has shifted away from obvious antipathy.

06.03.15

It’s Time for LGBT Scout Leaders

By Shakyra Diaz

Brian Peffly

As a former Boy Scout, I can say with all honesty the organization’s founding tenets provide a respectable framework to build a young person’s life upon. And I say this as a bisexual former scout.

Looking through the lens of someone who knows what the Boy Scouts of America is about, I see great hypocrisy in one of its policies—the exclusion of LGBT adults serving as volunteers or professionals in the organization.

05.04.15

Is the Supreme Court Ready to Make Marriage Equality the Law of the Land?

By Shakyra Diaz

Oral arguments provide a small window into the super-secretive process of Supreme Court deliberations. Justices frequently telegraph their views on the case in the questions they ask and their reactions to the attorneys’ answers.

These often-feisty exchanges between justices and attorneys–and sometimes between the justices themselves–do not, however, always predict how the Court will rule.

04.06.15

Gay IS NOT the New Black

By Steve David

Discrimination hurts people. It’s wrong for someone to look at you, your significant other or you family and say, “We won’t serve you here.”

With the recent passage of Indiana’s RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act), people are right to be outraged.

04.01.15

Obergefell v. Hodges: What’s Wrong With the State’s Argument?

By Lisa Wurm

Ohio has urged U.S. Supreme Court justices to reject marriage equality by deferring to the “democratic process” that resulted in Ohio’s 2004 bans on the licensing and recognition of same-sex couples’ marriages.

In the brief filed last week, Ohio Attorney General Michael DeWine also reframed the litigation before the Court as a debate over “social change.”

03.30.15

In Vogue: Religious “Freedom” as Discrimination

By Lisa Wurm

The ACLU knows a few things about true religious freedom. We’ve been fighting for it since our founding in 1920.

Religion and our freedom to exercise (or not to exercise) it is an important part of what makes us Americans and we’ll continue to ensure all people have these rights.

03.11.15

Just Trying to Use the Bathroom Here!

By Shakyra Diaz

You might consider going to the bathroom a subject that doesn’t belong in the blogosphere—something so intimate, private, and none of your business. It’s all of those things.

However, for the transgender community, the battle for equality often puts the most intimate parts of life under a public microscope.

01.30.15

The Importance of Saying “Transgender”

By Lisa Wurm

Acknowledgement: acceptance of the truth or existence of something.

In this year’s State of the Union speech, President Obama acknowledged the inequality many groups face. While announcing protections for the LGBT community, he became the first president to ever say “lesbian,” “bisexual,” and “transgender” in the annual address to the nation.

01.16.15

Ohio Same-Sex Marriage Heads to the Supreme Court!

By Lisa Wurm

Huge news for same-sex marriage!

The U.S. Supreme Court has chosen to hear the cases from all four states—Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee—in April of this year. This means Ohio has the chance to be a part of history and the ACLU of Ohio is proud to be a part of one of the cases that is taking us there.

01.14.15

LGBT in O-H-I-O

By Steve David

Ohio is a great place to be gay—well, almost.

Despite sleepy rust-belt stereotypes,Ohio has become a center for LGBT life and culture.  People may assume big cities on the coasts are the places to go for inclusive policies and vibrant social scenes, but LGBT and allied communities have claimed space and recognition in the heart of the Midwest.

12.31.14

Federal Government Says No to Transgender Workplace Discrimination

By Lisa Wurm

An important announcement just happened that you may have missed.

Transgender workers on the payroll of state and local public employers are now officially protected against workplace discrimination. The U.S. Department of Justice will be able to bring suit on behalf of people who say they have been discriminated against by public employers on the basis of gender identity.

11.21.14

Marriage Equality: Being Right Versus Being Popular

By Lisa Wurm

The ACLU is not one to follow popular opinion.

It was socially acceptable for schools to segregate African American students until 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the practice in Brown v. Board of Education. The public supported the confinement of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II.