This article first appeared on the Buckeye Flame.

I don’t cry easily, but I almost started crying in Cleveland’s FBI field office yesterday, in front of the FBI’s national chief diversity officer (CDO). 

I had been asked to participate in a roundtable of local community leaders. We were to  speak with the visiting CDO and local agents about hate crimes in historically marginalized communities and what the FBI might be able to do better to address these instances. 

I listened to Black colleagues speak about the prevalence of guns in the community and how those guns actually got there. I listened to Jewish colleagues note the dramatic rise in antisemitism in Ohio. And I listened to Asian American and Pacific Islander colleagues speak about the still-very-present instances of anti-Asian hate enabled by former President Trump. 

I hadn’t planned my remarks in advance, so when my time came to speak, I began with my usual baseline opener explaining that LGBTQ+ Ohioans live in a state where there are no legal protections in the areas of housing, employment and public accommodations, and that statewide reporting on hate crimes is sparse at best. 

In response to my colleagues’ examples of hate speech, I offhandedly mentioned that just a few hours earlier – literally just a few hours earlier – someone on social media had publicly called me a pervert, a groomer and an evil person. 

I then highlighted that the difference from my colleagues at the table was that the hate speech hurled at me wasn’t coming from a stranger; it came from an Ohio state representative.

There was an audible gasp in the room of FBI agents and community members, a verbal reaction for which I, oddly, was not prepared. 

And then something weird happened when I quickly resumed speaking: I heard my voice break and I was suddenly choked up. 

Please know, this is a most uncharacteristic reaction for reliably-stoic Ken Schneck, especially when speaking on LGBTQ+ issues in front of strangers, which I usually do weekly … and daily during the month of June. 

I hurriedly said the rest of what I had to say, suddenly gripped by fear of getting more emotional in front of FBI agents.

I was a bit in shock at my reaction. What had happened here?

Super quick backstory: Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery), the state representative who used the hate speech, is a Baptist pastor who is the architect of HB 68, the ban on gender-affirming care, which now includes a ban on trans female athletes. Despite every rational person in my life telling me to not interact with him online, I regularly respond to his posts on X. 

For my part, I try – and admittedly sometimes fail – to remain respectful, even when he says extraordinarily disparaging things about LGBTQ+ people and about me personally.

In his latest example, he had reposted a message from Chloe Cole, perhaps the country’s most well-known detransitioner (a term for individuals who formerly identified as transgender). Rep. Click reliably and relentlessly amplifies Cole’s perspective as being the norm, despite research concluding the exact opposite (including that 2.5% of trans people return to identifying as cisgender five years after social transition). 

In response to this post, I linked to an article highlighting that Cole makes up to $200,000 for her “work” testifying against gender-affirming care. 

As opposed to mothers of Ohio trans children who have put their lives on hold and have actually lost income to prevent the government getting in between families and healthcare decisions, this is clearly a lucrative “business” for Cole. 

The entirety of my comment to Rep. Click to go along with the article about Cole’s compensation? “This is…something.”

Rep. Click’s response? To call me a pervert, groomer and an evil man. 

It’s far from the first instance of name-calling from Rep. Click. But sitting there in front of the FBI and confronting the reality that this was an actual elected representative who was publicly role-modeling hate speech suddenly affected me and affected me deeply. 

Yes, I have bizarrely high expectations of elected representatives, some of it coming from being a former elected representative myself (#CheckSchneck!). Thus when our Ohio representatives engage in name-calling, or platform hate groups, or suggest that those who support trans youth should be drowned, there’s a big part of me that is floored by that behavior. 

To be clear: Behavior like this enables hate crimes. 

When elected representatives equate LGBTQ+ people with pedophiles – and make no mistake, that’s what Rep. Click was doing here – they normalize a harmful trope that emboldens their constituents to believe the absolute worst about their LGBTQ+ neighbors. Those beliefs lead to anti-LGBTQ+ hate as we see all around the country. 

So what do I do with my getting choked up talking about this in front of the FBI? Three things:

1. Acknowledge that I’m human. Being called a pervert, a groomer and an evil man is painful. I can shrug it off as the unhinged rantings of a bombastic pastor who is clearly saying more about himself than me, but it is still a painful experience. I truly believe that acknowledging that pain will make me a better journalist for the LGBTQ+ communities I endeavor to serve.
2. Stop interacting directly with Rep. Click on social media. Here’s the thing about me: If I put a commitment in writing, I hold myself accountable and actually do the thing I write. Yes, I know many of you have told me this 525,600 times before, but I finally get it: There is nothing to be gained by interacting with him. I will continue to reach out to him for official comment on stories that involve him, but that’s it.
3. Keep reporting on elected officials and hate speech. Journalism continues to be one of the best disinfectants for hate, and it is critical that The Buckeye Flame continues to cover instances when elected officials say and do blatantly anti-LGBTQ+ things, painful though it may be for us to hear and write about and painful for you to read. You can’t hold them to a higher standard unless you know how they really feel about us. And make no mistake about it: They’re really not shy about sharing that hate for all the world to see, as I certainly experienced this week. 

• The FBI defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” The FBI works to protect all victims of crimes, regardless of their country of national origin or immigration status. If you believe you are victim or a witness of a hate crime, we encourage you to report it to the FBI by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI or submitting a tip at tips.fbi.gov. You may remain anonymous. Or visit the FBI’s Hate Crime page for more resources by going here.