On Wednesday at about 5:15 am I rolled out of bed, showered, threw on my best pants, shoes and shirt, and picked out a snazzy tie.  It was time for another trip to the State House and this time for House Bill 176 Equal Housing and Employment Act.  HB 176 amends 39 sections (if I counted correctly) of the Ohio Revised Code to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.  This bill passed in the house with all the democrats voting to pass the bill as well as five republicans (Blair, Dolan, Hite, Lehner and McGregor).  HB176 is currently sitting in the Senate and has yet to be moved into committee where testimony can be heard.

The Plan:
I was visiting my hometown Senator Steve Buehrer (R) and Representative Cliff Hite (R) as well as Representative Bruce Goodwin (R). The main object with the Representatives was to bring two additional pieces of legislation to their attention. One would change Ohio’s Safe Schools law to including kids who are or are thought to be LGBT.  The other would expand the Ohio Hospital Patient’s Bill of Rights to include the right of the patient to specify who has access to them during consultation, treatment and/or inpatient stays.  Additionally, because Rep. Hite supported the passing of HB176 we wanted to thank him tremendously.  With Sen. Buehrer the objective of the day was to try to have him speak with Sen. Bill Harris to at least allow HB176 to have a hearing as well as to gain his “yes” vote if the bill does reach the house floor.

The Meetings:

Rep. Goodwin (R):
The first meeting of the day was with Rep. Goodwin.  While he has not voted positively on LGBT issues in the past he also has not outwardly spoke against them either.  The meeting we had with him was very brief as he had another meeting to get to but we focused a lot on the Safe Schools law and how it was an important piece of education legislation hoping that he would support it due to his 40 year work in school systems as a teacher, counselor, and administrator.  Given the brevity of the meeting and that Rep. Goodwin seemingly did not want to take a stance on the issue, we were unable to get a “yes” or “no” confirmation from him.

Rep. Hite (R):
The second meeting of the day was with Rep. Hite. This meeting to me was the most rewarding.  When we entered his office he quickly told us that we should make this the longest meeting of the day and that he really wanted to hear from us.  We of course thanked him repeatedly for voting “yes” on HB176 and apologized for the grief that he received during primary election.  (His opponent’s primary campaign against him was his voting “yes” on HB176, however he did win the primary anyway)  He then told us that while his vote did make his primary more difficult that he believes that it is one of the most important votes he’s made in office.  He told us how appalled he was with the testimony against HB176 (one talked about a % of gay men that eat their own feces).  He also expressed that he was pleased that he had to work harder to be re-elected because he went door to door and met with his constituents something he had not done in a long time.  Additionally he commented that not a single person he visited brought up HB176.  We shared a lot of our stories so that he would have more reasons and more stories to share as more legislation is proposed.  He asked us questions and genuinely seemed to want to learn and understand.  The most rewarding part of that meeting to me came from his question regarding teachers that are transgender and that transition while teaching.  I of course was happy to share my story about being trans and an educator and share how my student teaching wasn’t affected by being called “Ms.” one quarter and “Mr.” another.  I also expressed that if a person is truly an educator and cares about the children that they are working with that they will plan their transition accordingly and will create the best situation for both themselves and those around them.  When we left that meeting I believe that all persons involved felt good about what had already happened and what was to come.

Sen. Buehrer (R) (Majority Whip):
This meeting was with Sen. Buehrer’s Administrative Assistant, Debra Bloomfield, due to the fact that Sen. Buehrer was in a session regarding a casino bill.  We were able to share our stories and tell of our support for the bill as constituents. At one point Ms. Bloomfield stated that she couldn’t believe that LGBT persons were still discriminated against in the workplace (which seems to be a common comment). Unfortunately Ms. Bloomfield was of course unable to make any comments regarding the Senator’s stance on such matters she promised to pass our comments on.

Debriefing:
At the end of the day we heard many stories that were similar to mine, some a little more positive and some a little more negative as expected.  So now comes the point for my ask, as all good lobbyists know never leave without a specific ask.

If you want to help get HB 176 passed through Ohio Senate you can do one or more of the following.

Call, email, or snail mail (typed or written letters, they still exist ) your own representative, or a friend or families, or mine for that matter, and ask them to ask Sen. Harris to take HB176 to committee for a hearing. Call, email, snail mail Sen. Harris and ask him yourself!

(For Senate information - http://www.ohiosenate.gov/)
(For House information - http://www.house.state.oh.us/)
WE CAN GET THIS PASSED, IT TAKES EVERYONE’S VOICE!

HB176 - http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=128_HB_176