GAY PEOPLE'S

Chronicle

Ohio's Newspaper for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community • www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com Volume 27, Issue 19 March 9, 2012

Equality Ohio cautious

on marriage measure

by Eric Resnick

Columbus-Equality Ohio says they will exercise caution before endorsing a proposed ballot initiative by Freedom to Marry Ohio to amend Ohio's constitution to allow same-sex marriage.

The statement comes after Ian James, the measure's backer, spoke to 116 participants in the eighth annual Leadership Summit held in Columbus on March 3, which was sponsored by Equality Ohio.

"We will issue a statement soon, but we are going to wait until we hear back from more people and until the board has had a chance to discuss it to release a public statement," said Equality Ohio director Ed Mullen.

Mullen said he expects Equality Ohio to issue the statement by March 21, adding, "I think research, deliberation and community input are critical and don't want to issue a statement until we are comfortable that we have the necessary information."

Equality Ohio was organized as a statewide LGBT advocacy organization in 2005 after Ohio's marriage ban amendment was passed by voters the year before. One of the group's purposes is to repeal the amendment. They were preparing to survey community leaders beginning March 6.

This additional caution resulted from skepticism expressed at the summit following a presentation by James.

James and a committee of five others filed 1,764 signatures and a summary of a proposed amendment with the Ohio attorney general on March 1. This is the first step to a ballot initiative to amend the Ohio Constitution.

If 1,000 of them are valid, the attorney general has ten calendar days to determine if the summary is "fair and truthful." If it is, the petitioning committee then must collect an additional 385,253 valid signatures to send the initiative to ballot.

There is no time limit to collect the signatures, which must come from throughout the state. The Columbus Dispatch reported campaign officials saying that could happen "in November or next year."

However, James told the sum-

mit audience he is planning for 2013.

The summary was filed by James and Andrew Murphy, Julie Driscoll, Kasey VanBuskirk, Jennifer Stack and Ben Deutschle, all of Columbus or its suburbs.

It proposes to do more than repeal the current marriage ban amendment. It would enshrine marriage between two consenting adults, regardless of gender, in the state constitution. The language also allows for religious organizations to decide which marriages they recognize and keeps in place laws about marriage that, for example, prevent siblings or other close relatives from marrying.

Another provision keeps the section of the 2004 marriage ban amendment that allows “political subdivisions not to recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals."

Too little preparation?

Resistance to the amendment

proposal has come about over fears that its sponsor, Freedom to Marry Ohio, has not done the necessary preliminary work, has not engaged people with expertise or influence and did not get consensus on the proposed language.

Jacob McClain of Ask Cleveland noted at the summit that James had not been in touch with organizations expert in LGBT ballot initiatives or sought counsel from a campaign in Maine that also seeks to overturn that state's marriage ban by initiative this year.

"This is a movement here," James answered. "We're ahead of the establishment. We're not going to wait for someone to tell us this is the time to go."

"This is not an individual effort," said McClain. "The coalition needs to know what it's doing before a campaign can be waged."

Privately, participants expressed concern that launching a campaign before the necessary preparations are made could lead to failure, and a more difficult and more expensive second attempt due to resources wasted and campaign fatigue.

Continued on page 2

Partners will be covered

BRIAN DEWITT

About a dozen people gathered in the office of Cuyahoga County Executive Edward FitzGerald on February 23 to watch him sign the new domestic partner benefit ardinanca into law. The measure extends the health benefits given to county employees' married spouses to the partners of gay and lesbian workers. With FitzGerald are, from right, State Rep. Nickie Antonio, County Councilors Sunny Simon and Julian Rogers, Cleveland Stonewall Democrats president Rob Rivera, Rev. Robert and Joyce Strommen of P-FLAG, and Cleveland Stonewall Democrats board member Steve Bennett.

Springfield commissioners vote down LGBT equality bill, 3 to 2

by Anthony Glassman

Sprinfield, Ohio City commissioners voted down an expansion to Springfield's antidiscrimination ordinances on February 28 by a vote of 3-2.

Mayor Warren R. Copeland and commissioner Karen B. Duncan voted to add sexual orientation and gender identity to city civil rights ordinances, while Daniel J. Martin, Kevin O'Neill and Assistant Mayor Joyce Chilton voted

no.

Last fall, the city commissioners sent the proposed ordinance to the city's human relations board, which heard public testimony and returned a recommendation

against the measure in December.

Testimony ranged from scientific questions of nature vs. nurture and lists of animal species that engage in homosexual activity to right-wing lists of incidents of "religious persecution" caused by the "radical homosexual agenda."

However, as the debate over the bill went on, the rhetoric slid more and more to the right, likely costing the measure support on the city commission.

"In terms of what happened, it seemed to me early in the process, the supporters were better-organized and were much more present at meetings and so the conversa-

Inside This Issue

Helmink loses Ohio House run, but Kurt and Brown win

A dozen for ten

tion was pretty much dominated by their presentations," said Copeland, who is also a professor at Wittenberg University. "As time went on, the opponents, I think led primarily by conservative Christians, got much more organized."

"From that point on, at meetings, etc., they tended to be in the majority and to play a much larger role in the discussions," he continued. "I think in terms of the public reality, it was a matter of the opposition getting much more organized."

The city commissioners have twice expressed their support for Continued on page 10

News Briefs

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Charlie's Calendar

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