Trans woman’s Ohio house candidacy challenged under decades-old law
A second transgender woman’s attempt to run for public office in Ohio was challenged under a decades-old law that requires candidates to disclose previous legal names on election documents.
Arienne Childrey, a Democrat vying for a seat in the Ohio house of representatives, learned late last week that the head of her county’s Republican party, Robert Hibner, asked the local board of elections to reject her campaign petition.
Hibner’s letter to election officials comes just days after Vanessa Joy, also a trans woman, was disqualified from running for the Ohio state house. Both Joy and Childrey are accused of violating a 1995 Ohio statute that requires political candidates to disclose any legal name changes within five years of the election.
Childrey learned about Hibner’s letter on Friday, when a local reporter called to ask for comment on the backlash to her campaign.
“I wasn’t surprised to get the phone call. Once the articles started coming out about Vanessa’s story, I knew there was a bullseye on us,” Childrey said.
Joy and Childrey are among the four transgender candidates running for state office this year. Both women’s entrance into state politics comes as antitrans sentiment is increasing across the country, with a record 510 anti-LGBTQ + bills introduced by state lawmakers in 2023.
Childrey is hoping to unseat longtime incumbent Angela King, a Republican. The political newcomer decided to run after King introduced a bill that would prohibit drag performances in public spaces in Ohio.
“After I realized that nobody was going to run against her in the next election, I decided that she could not run unopposed,” Childrey said of her opponent. “If you go to the ballot and there’s only one name, that’s not an election, that’s a coronation.”
Despite the legal challenges brought against her campaign, Childrey remains hopeful that she can beat King in November.
The Republicans’ challenge to Childrey’s candidacy was deemed invalid this week – under Ohio election rules, a letter of protest cannot be filed by a member of the opposing party. Despite that determination, county assistant prosecutor Amy Ikerd told local reporters that the Mercer county board of elections could still proceed with Childrey’s hearing, now scheduled for 18 January.
For Joy, her bid for a seat in the state house came to an abrupt halt this week: her appeal to the board of elections was denied.
Both Joy and Childrey said they were unaware of the 1995 statute requiring them to disclose their “deadname” – a term used by trans people to refer to the name given at birth, not one they chose that aligns with their gender identity.
In a press release this week, Joy said: “Had I known about this law, I would have included my deadname on my petitions.”
Childrey said the candidacy guide, a handbook that the state offers to people running for public office, does not instruct prospective candidates to disclose past legal names.
“I can barely even fit my current name on the space provided in that form, let alone my deadname,” she said. “They’re telling us that this rule is extremely important, except it’s nowhere in the paperwork.”
Melanie Amato, a spokeswoman for the Ohio secretary of state, said the guide “does not include every statute pertaining to candidates – in fact the first paragraph offers that disclaimer and urges candidates to consult with their legal counsel”.
“The law applies to everyone,” Amato said.
Notably, the law offers an exception to people who changed their name due to marriage.
LGBTQ+ advocates said Ohio’s uneven enforcement of the 1995 statute is a covert way of suppressing the legal and political rights of transgender Americans.
“Normally, LGBTQ candidates are attacked with lies about their identity, or from whisper campaigns,” said Sean Meloy, vice-president of political programs at the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, a national non-profit that works to elect LGBTQ+ political candidates.
“But it’s a whole other level to not even give voters the chance to vote for an LGBTQ candidate; it’s a new low that I don’t think we’ve seen yet.”
Meloy said Republicans had created a political climate in Ohio that was increasingly hostile to trans people.
One day after Joy’s hearing with local elections officials, the Ohio house voted to override Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill that restricts trans minors’ access to gender-affirming care.
Joy said in a press release this week that Ohio “is becoming one of the most dangerous places in the country for transgender people to live”.
Still, Childrey remains focused on the state house.
“Regardless of what happens in this hearing, if they boot me off the ballot, I have every intention to refile,” she said. “And in that next election, on that form, I’ll put my current name, I’ll put my deadname, I’ll put the age I was pottytrained, whatever details they need.”