“Please don’t be my bullies, too.”
These words echoed loud against the salmon-pink walls of room 114 of the Ohio Statehouse. They concluded the testimony of 11-year-old Sean Miller, a transgender girl offering her story of fighting bullying and discrimination, at a proponent hearing for the Ohio Fairness Act (or HB 369). The state representatives on the House Civil Justice Committee watched sympathetically, but under the surface a familiar fight was brewing.
The Ohio Fairness Act would amend the state code to expand its protected groups and outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. While 28 localities in Ohio have some form of LGBTQ protection, those only cover about a fourth of people in the state. In most places in Ohio, it is still legal to fire an employee, deny a renter a lease, or refuse to give a homebuyer a loan on the basis of their sexuality or gender identity.