As Anti-Trans Ads Rage On, There’s a Final Push to Motivate LGBTQ+ Ohioans to Go Vote

The election is only a few days away and LGBTQ+ issues are featuring prominently in some very important outcomes.

At this point, commercials demonizing trans Ohioans are inescapable, with an estimated $120 million spent on anti-trans ads nationally.


“They create fear and divide us as a community,” Equality Ohio said Monday in a statement.

Although new polling data from GLAAD and Ground Media indicates that anti-trans ads from the Trump campaign have “no statistically significant impact” on likelihood to vote or candidate choice, the data also revealed that the ads are greatly eroding general support for transgender people and issues.

So how does this all translate into getting LGBTQ+ Ohioans to actually show up and vote?

The Buckeye Flame spoke with John Gruber, director of national campaigns at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and an Ohio native, for a quick pre-election round-up of the place LGBTQ+ Ohioans hold at the polls and the motivation needed to get them to actually vote.

To start, sometimes there can be confusion on how the national organizations relate on the state level. Talk a little bit about how Human Rights Campaign supports Ohio.

John Gruber: The Human Rights Campaign has made a deep investment in Ohio. We have three steering committees, which are volunteer supported structures that do community engagement, fundraising and support elected officials. They’re out knocking on doors across the state right now in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus.

We also have thousands of members across the state. These are people who identify with the Human Rights Campaign’s mission for full lived and legal equality for all LGBTQ+ Ohioans. They signed up at Pride fairs or they go online after they see some of these crazy ads that Bernie Moreno is running. They get annoyed and they sign up with HRC and we keep them activated.

We also do a big advocacy piece in partnership with organizations like Equality Ohio and some other grassroots groups that are closer to the local level. We work together in Columbus to figure out strategies to stop — or try at least slow down — bad legislation from passing.

You can obviously probably see a lot of that coalition effort in our work last year on the gender-affirming care ban and trans athletes ban that we got Governor DeWine to veto and then obviously the legislature overrode. So that’s a good example of HRC’s dual commitment legislatively and politically.

With the national perspective that the Human Rights Campaign brings to the mix, how important is Ohio’s LGBTQ+ community in this upcoming election?

I think it’s very important. Ohio’s LGBTQ+ community knows — unfortunately more than many other places — what it’s like to be truly attacked.

We’ve all seen those disgusting ads that Bernie Moreno is running. And we know Ohio’s been the victim of a lot of stuff this election cycle, whether it’s Springfield or whether the far right is using rumors, or fear or just attacking [LGBTQ+] people to try and score cheap political points. So the best thing the Ohio LGBTQ+ community can do is to get organized, make sure that they’re voting and make sure that their friends are voting.

We always like to think about how the LGBTQ+ community is very strong and it’s growing. And we have allies. We have brothers, we have sisters, we have co workers and we have friends who will come out and vote for us. They will vote for our rights, and they’ll see what Bernie Moreno is saying, and they’ll see what Sherrod Brown is saying about LGBTQ+ rights, and they’ll say, “I’m with Sherrod because he’s for full lived and legal equality for all Ohioans.”

What have you seen as effective techniques to really get people out there and vote? What messaging has worked on the LGBTQ+ community to motivate them?

It’s interesting. I think one of the things — and it’s almost like stealing what Kamala Harris said in the debate — is just go listen. Go listen to the difference between the two candidates. Go listen to what Bernie Moreno is saying or what Sherrod Brown is saying. Bernie Moreno is trying to divide and create all of these awful stereotypes about different types of people, whether it’s him being for a total abortion ban or whether it’s him attacking gender-affirming care.

Sherrod Brown is talking about the issues that people care about, which would be economics, railroad safety and all the things that we know that Ohioans actually care about. And he’s also for full lived and legal equality. He’s voted for the Equality Act numerous times. He gets an A+ on HRC’s congressional scorecard.

So you can just look at them. You can listen to what they’re saying. And that’s a great motivator.

I also think it’s a good thing to remember what’s at stake in this election. If [Democrats] lose the Senate, we cannot pass the Equality Act. We have to look at what actually happens when we pass the Equality Act. People will not be fired for being gay. They won’t face discrimination because of the healthcare that they need.

If we can keep the Senate, win the presidency again, and win the U. S. House, we can do big things for the LGBTQ+ community, and that’s what’s at stake. When you explain to people the very real danger that a lot of the LGBTQ+ community lives in, they’ll be like, “Oh my god, yeah, I need to vote for the right candidate.”

As an LGBTQ+ Ohioan speaking here to LGBTQ+ Ohioans, what’s the final message, John? What can get people out there to vote?

Your rights are on the line. Vote like it.

Originally published by The Buckeye Flame. Republished here with permission.