Ohio House Democrats introduce Fairness Act to protect LGBTQ+ Ohioans
Ohio Democrats filed a companion bill to the Fairness Act on Tuesday, Feb. 25, in the state House of Representatives.
The companion bill HB 136, sponsored by State Rep. Tristan Rader (D-Lakewood) and Rep. Crystal Lett (D-Columbus), would extend protections to LGBTQ+ Ohioans. SB 70, the Senate version, was introduced in the Senate during the first week of February for the 12th time.
While the Senate bill will likely receive a hearing due its early filing in the legislative session, the House bill is guaranteed one.
Almost the entire Democratic caucus in both chambers is on board with the bill, save for one Democrat in the House, Rader said. With the state legislature having recently passed laws that limit care for transgender youth, the Fairness Act is one way to “hold the line” and “continue to push forward.”
“[It’s] a very, very strong signal from Democrats that this is something we really believe should be top priority,” Rader said.
Rader is serving his first term in the Statehouse. He previously served on the Lakewood City Council, worked at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank and was the Ohio Director of Solar United Neighbors, a nonprofit organization that represents solar owners and supporters.
Much of the credit for reintroducing the bill this term goes to Lett, who partly campaigned on the Fairness Act in a swing district.
Lett is also at the start of her first term. She was a case manager at North Central Mental Health Services and founded The Salon Lab, a bipartisan organization that helped women interested in politics.
In a statement, Lett said reintroducing this act was an “honor.”
“The fact that it is still legal to discriminate against someone based on their orientation is not only antiquated, but wrong,” she said. “The passing of this bill would better reflect Ohio’s values.”
In both the Ohio Senate and House, the Fairness Act has no bipartisan support. Rader credited the shift to the charged atmosphere in the Statehouse around social issues, though he prefers to call them “people issues.”
State protections for LGBTQ+ workers have shown to draw more workers to the state, he said.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2020 in Bostock v. Clayton County protects LGBTQ+ workers from discrimination, but Rader said the decision could be overturned, like Roe v. Wade was in 2022.
“We need to keep these issues forefront in people’s minds,” he said.
Rader said he hopes that the House version will have an opportunity for proponent-opponent testimony, despite the bleak outlook. The last time the Fairness Act received such a hearing was in 2018, though many Ohioans supported the bill, according to a poll released that year.
“The only places that are asking for these horrible bills [like SB 1] are out-of-state think tanks that just want to dredge up hate,” Rader said. “We’re fighting like tooth and nail to protect people, while, for some reason, the other side of the aisle wants to do things that nobody wants in Ohio.”