Supporters of equal rights for LGBTQ Ohioans, women, veterans and others have decided to start circulating two proposed amendments for signatures to put them before voters next fall. The decision comes about one month after the Republican-dominated Ohio Ballot Board ordered that the amendment to ban discrimination against people in a variety of groups must be circulated in two parts.
Ohio Equal Rights Co-chair Lis Regula said the group had options; take legal recourse, or make changes to the language and go back to the beginning of the process. But Regula said the group decided to go ahead and circulate the petitions in two parts as the board ordered.
But he said timing is important because rights for some Ohioans are at risk right now: “We wanted to make sure to do this efficiently and effectively so that Ohioans are protected sooner rather than later.”
The Equal Rights Amendment was split into two parts by the Ohio Ballot Board last month. One part would overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, which was approved by voters in 2004 but has been dormant since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision legalizing same-sex marriage in 2015. The other part would prevent local and state governments from discriminating against LGBTQ Ohioans, women, and several other protected groups. It would ban discrimination based on race, color, creed or religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression regardless of sex assigned at birth, pregnancy status, genetic information, disease status, age, disability, recovery status, familial status, ancestry, national origin or military and veteran status.
Republicans on the Ballot Board voted to split it to give Ohioans who support or oppose same-sex marriage but don't have the same views about the other part of this amendment the opportunity to vote separately on both.
It's taken about a month for Ohio Equal Rights to come to its conclusion on how to proceed. Regula said the decision wasn’t made in a vacuum.
“We try to be data-driven as much as possible so we asked for opinions from our lawyers as well as quotes on what it would take for a lawsuit challenging the Ballot Board’s decision. We looked at the cost that this would increase as far as things like printing, people hours and so on,” Regula said. “And we asked the community for their input, gave them the information that we had and said, ‘Hey, these are the three things we are considering. If you were in our shoes, what would you do?’”
Regula said the group will need more resources to circulate two petitions. But he said volunteers have come out to help with the task.
Regula said the two petitions have been sent back to the Ohio Attorney General’s office. If they are approved in their current form, the group can begin circulating the petitions immediately. They will need to collect roughly 413,000 valid signatures to make the November 2026 ballot.
