Radical LGBTQ activists have been busy trying to garner enough signatures to force a 2026 ballot initiative known as the Ohio Equal Rights Amendment which will give a huge boost in power and a tool of weaponry to the homosexual and transgender movement.
Linda Harvey is President of Columbus-based Mission America.
“The idea of non-discrimination for sexual orientation and gender identity is one that has proven to be destructive to individuals, to religious freedom, to families, to children, to schools. And we have a long track record now in all of these blue states and blue cities that have these ordinances. There should be no reason why any sane individual, and certainly no one who's a Christian, should ever vote for such an amendment."
But Harvey says fortunately the Ohio Ballot Board decided to split this effort into two initiatives, one to establish same sex "marriage" and one for the "equal rights" component.
Same-sex marriage became legal with the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision in 2015. An Ohio “Defense of Marriage Act” was approved by voters in 2004 but has been dormant since that decision. The Ohio Equal Rights Amendment would overturn that state law, leaving Ohioans unprotected should Obergefell be overturned one day.
The decision by the Ballot Board, which has a Republican majority, likely makes it harder for the signature threshold to be achieved.
“They would need some 440,000 signatures for each of the two. Now there are two different petition drives. So, I think they're going to have a tough time and what I last heard was that they're evaluating, probably looking for enough donations to see whether they can sustain such an effort. But if they get those, it will be on the ballot. And then we've got a big fight on our hands,” Harvey said.
