Equality Ohio is a

nonpartisan Nonpartisan or non-partisan may refer to: __NOTOC__ General political concepts * Nonpartisanship, also known as Nonpartisanism, co-operation without reference to political parties * Non-partisan democracy, an election with no official recognition ...

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

organization that supports

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

(

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

) equality in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. The organization is a member of the

Equality Federation Equality Federation is a social justice, advocacy and capacity building organization serving and supporting state-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) advocacy organizations in the United States. History In 1997, a group of state ...

. Since its founding, Equality Ohio has concurrently operated under two separate

tax identification numbers – one for Equality Ohio and another for the Equality Ohio Education Fund. The latter of these retains most of the funding for the organization.

History

Equality Ohio was founded in 2005 following the passage of Ohio Issue 1, which banned state recognition of same-sex relationships.

Leadership transitions

In its twenty-year history, Equality Ohio has had several executive directors. The organization's first executive director, Lynne Bowman, was one of its founders, and she served as its executive director for over 5 years. Following this, Sue Doerfer became executive director in December 2009, but she announced her resignation in late 2010. Doerfer was replaced by Ed Mullen, who was a former candidate for Illinois State Representative and civil rights lawyer from Chicago, and Mullen served in this role for nearly two years. In 2012, the organization hired its fourth executive director, Elyzabeth Joy Holford, and Holford left the role to return to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in 2015. Following this, Alana Jochum was named the executive director in 2015. Alana left the role in 2023 and currently serves as Policy Director with Americans for Trans Equity (A4TE). From 2023-2024 the organization was led by Interim Executive Director, Katie Belanger. In 2024, the agency hired its first openly queer Black Executive Director, Dwayne Steward.

Legislative priorities

In the early 2010s, Equality Ohio focused on advancing state legislation to prohibit employment discrimination or

housing discrimination Housing discrimination refers to patterns of discrimination that affect a person's ability to rent or buy housing. This disparate treatment of a person on the housing market can be based on group characteristics or on the place where a person liv ...

based on sexual orientation. During this period, the organization was also focused on the Equal Housing and Employment Act (HB 335/SB 231) and enumeration of the safe schools legislation, which was passed in January 2012. Following this, Equality Ohio focused on marriage equality. Given opposition in the state legislature, Equality Ohio endorsed the Citizens Not Politicians campaign for the 2024 Issue 1 ballot initiative against gerrymandering.

Labor union creation

In fall 2022, the organization announced that its employees had elected to form a

labor union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

. The leadership of the organization agreed to voluntarily recognize the

, Equality Ohio Workers United.

References

External links