In effect, S.B. 132 would move Ohio, which does not have explicit discrimination protections for LGBT+ residents, in line with federal case law, which changed in 2020 when the United States Supreme Court ruled that the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 generally protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment.
However, S.B. 132 would also extend a host of other explicit Ohio discrimination protections to LGBTQ+ Ohioans, including in areas of housing, credit and public accommodations, according to the legislature’s nonpartisan analysis of the bill.
“It is a fair proposal that will simply give people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender the same freedom and access to jobs, housing, and services as anyone else in Ohio,” Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, said while testifying in support of her bill last week.
Antonio told Statehouse reporters that she views discrimination protections as a pro-workforce issue and believes S.B. 132 would add to the “economic bottom line of the state of Ohio.”
“All we’ve heard when I (have been) in any kind of meeting where we’re talking about adding to both our population in the state of Ohio and the workforce is the fact that we are losing young people, especially, and we’re losing high tech workers,” Antonio said. “If we’re going to fill Intel and everywhere else, we need to make sure we send the message that all workers are welcome to the state of Ohio.”
This is the twelfth time Ohio Democrats have tried to extend discrimination protections to LGBTQ+ Ohioans and the seventh straight time the bill has been introduced by Antonio, who is openly gay.
The bill has always failed despite having a track record of support from stakeholders outside the Democratic Party’s usual umbrella, such as the state’s business community and GOP colleagues in the Ohio Senate.
This year, that support extends to Butler County Sen. George Lang, R-West Chester Twp. — one of two Republicans in the chamber to cosponsor the legislation — and the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce, whose V.P. of Strategic Initiatives Stephanie Keinath described the Ohio Fairness Act as a legislative priority.
“We’ve partnered with over 1,300 employers from across the state of Ohio, via the Ohio Business Competes Coalition, who support passing this legislation to better position Ohio’s businesses to recruit talent from across the country, and to increase the likelihood that Ohio’s LGBTQ workforce will remain working in, and contributing to, Ohio’s economy,” Keinath wrote in a statement to this news outlet.
Keinath noted that, with 2020′s case law being the only mandate prohibiting LGBTQ+ discrimination amongst employers, employers in Ohio are vulnerable to federal lawsuits.
“Providing consistency between state and federal employment law is critical for our employers in Ohio, and the passage of the Ohio Fairness Act would immediately address those concerns,” she said.
Last week, Antonio told this news outlet that she’s not sure if more Republicans like Lang will sign on to the bill before the end of the year when the term, and all its unfinished business, expires.
But she said she was glad to testify on the bill “given the context of where we are right now in the country as well as the state” — a reference to the Ohio General Assembly’s approval of a transgender bathroom restriction in all Ohio schools and universities and a national election where transgender policies played a major role.
This news outlet reached out to the communication team of Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, to ask if the bill was a priority but did not receive an answer before publishing.
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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