Take a Stand Against Two Ohio “LGBTQ” Ballot Measures

Mission America
Linda Harvey

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If you want to see the face of “LGBTQ equal rights,” look no further than openly gay, smug Don Lemon, confronting a St. Paul (MN) pastor after joining a mob invading the congregation’s Sunday worship service.

Do those proposing the Ohio “equal rights” ballot issues have respect for Christians, Christian moral values, and the children of families who hold such values?

This recent incident and history tell us, generally, no. Consider Renee Good and her partner and their lawless attitudes that tragically led to Renee’s attempt to run down an ICE officer in Minneapolis with her car, followed by her own death as he took self-defense measures.

Why should more “equal rights” laws empowering the “LGBTQ” crowd be passed anywhere in America right now? This movement has not earned respect from the majority because too many of them don’t give respect to the majority. Many don’t even respect places of worship, America’s established laws or those who enforce them.

From rude protesters at the Ohio Statehouse, to angry vandals of public property to vicious social media posts, to teachers and school staff breaking Ohio law to push sinful behaviors on students, there is little visible acknowledgement of dignity and fairness coming from this movement toward the majority of Ohioans.

Consider how disrespectfully Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue,  was treated recently at a debate on “LGBTQ”  issues by attendees, demonstrators and organizers at the City Club of Cleveland.

So how should Ohio voters greet two ballot issues planned for the November election by a group called Ohio Equal Rights? The two ballot measures focus largely on extending more rights to those embracing homosexuality or transgenderism.

The petitions are now circulating around the state, collecting signatures. One issue would place a vote on same-sex (so-called) “marriage” on the ballot in November to legalize these relationships in the Ohio constitution. If passed, it would repeal the standard of one man/one woman marriage passed in a 2004 vote by 62% of Ohioans.

Yet two men or two women never form an actual marriage, and this is a travesty that needs to be stopped if we can. The 2004 statewide vote declared that marriage is “only a union between one man and one woman” and that language remains in Ohio’s Constitution. When the U.S. Supreme Court legalized homosexual relationships as marriage in 2015, the man/woman provision in our state Constitution became dormant. It was not repealed, but the Supreme Court decision superseded it, and that will remain the case unless our present high court decides to overturn the foolish 2015 ruling, named after the plaintiff, an Ohio man named Jim Obergefell. We can pray that the high court takes up a case that affords that opportunity.

A case came before SCOTUS last fall regarding Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who refused to sign off on a same sex couple’s union in 2015, but the high court decided not to take up that case. Ohio Equal Rights wants to take action before a more attractive marriage case is reviewed by the Supreme Court, because the court may find there is no Constitutional right for two men to be considered married, which would reflect the truth.

We can pray for that to happen, but in the meantime, we don’t want the left to force their version of morality on us one more time with a statewide vote. And in Ohio, it only takes a bare majority—just over 50% — for a ballot issue to pass.

The one thing we can do is to make people aware that petitioners are out collecting signatures, needing over 442,000 valid signatures with representation from 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties. So in the next few months, get ready to refuse to sign this petition or the second one they will offer.

Petition #2 would pass an Ohio “equal rights” measure, naming these categories: race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy status, disease status, age, disability, recovery status, familial status, ancestry, national origin, or military and veteran status. We already have Ohio non-discrimination law that covers many of these, so the laundry list of identity politics is purely strategy to rope in those who may not know about the duplication. We do not need this confusion forced on all Ohio agencies, schools, and businesses. Many of these are personal preferences and attitudes, not “rights.”

And no one is born homosexual or in the wrong sex body. All of the “LGBTQ” behaviors are highly controversial with demonstrated health and social risks, and millions of Ohioans have deep concerns about validating these identities and behaviors, especially when impressionable children might be taught to accept them inaccurately as normal and uncomplicated. And of course, people with sincere Christian faith know that this is sinful conduct, offensive to our Godly Savior.

ACTION: Tell everyone you know not to sign these two radical, unnecessary, anti-Christian petitions.