DeMora Condemns Ballot Board Vote to Split Equal Rights Amendment into Two Issues

Today, state Senator Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) issued the following statement after the Ohio Ballot Board voted along party lines to split the Ohio Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed citizen-initiated constitutional amendment to establish comprehensive anti-discrimination protections and marriage equality, into two separate issues.

"Today's decision to split the Equal Rights Amendment is a disgraceful act of partisan manipulation rooted in pure bigotry,” said DeMora. “The majority chose political gamesmanship over protecting Ohioans' fundamental rights, artificially fracturing a unified civil rights amendment to confuse voters just like they did with last year's Issue 1. This shameful overreach exposes their true agenda: using every dirty trick in the book to deny LGBTQ+ Ohioans and other marginalized communities the protections they deserve."

In a 3-2 decision, the Democratic members of the Board voted against a motion by Secretary of State Frank LaRose to divide the amendment into two separate amendments – one to repeal Ohio’s current constitutional definition of marriage as exclusively between a man and woman and one to prohibit state and local governments from discriminating against a number of protected groups, including LGBTQ+ people. 

By voting to split the amendment into two issues, proponents will have to gather double the amount of required signatures to put the issues on the ballot.