Opinion: Ohio Republicans won’t protect my right as a gay man to marry – The Cincinnati Enquirer
My heterosexual friends say Ohio Republicans will protect my right as a gay man to marry. I don’t believe them.
The U.S. Senate votes this month on the Respect for Marriage Act, the most consequential gay rights legislation in U.S. history. But you’d never know that in Ohio. Ohio Republicans’ effort to downplay the act’s significance hides a systematic effort to quietly chip away at LGBTQ+ rights. And, the strategy is working.
It started in April when my childhood neighbor State Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) introduced House Bill 616, Ohio’s version of Florida’s misguided, newly passed “Don’t Say Gay” law, which includes specific bans on acknowledging LGBTQ+ identities.
“She’s just playing politics,” a childhood friend parroted Republican talking points when I worried aloud to her about whether the bill would make it illegal for me to join a PTA or even pick up my future child from school. She assured me, “Don’t worry so much. Ohio isn’t Florida.”
It continued in June when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas argued that same-sex marriage and private same-sex sexual relations are not constitutionally protected rights and could (read: should) be overturned. I panicked and called a childhood friend turned lawyer in Columbus.
“Don’t worry, Matt. Ohioans’ hearts have changed on gay rights,” he comforted me. “If something happens, people will stand up and protect you.”
In July, Ohio representatives finally had a chance to do just that, protect same-sex marriage by passing the Respect for Marriage Act. I watched the vote live on CSPAN: 8 Ohio representatives (two-thirds of our Republican representatives) and more than three-fourths of House Republicans voted to strike down the bill.
“Be hopeful,” a friend told me when the bill managed to narrowly pass the House. “This is how democracy works.”
This time, I cried alone in my bedroom.
This month, the U.S. Senate will decide if the bill will become law, and the effort is likely to fail. Big-name Republican senators like Marco Rubio (R-FL) have called protecting gay marriage “a waste of time.” Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) dubbed the bill “unnecessary,” leaving GOP Senate support six short of the 10 required to ensure passage. And it gets grimmer: Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) voted to strike down the Marriage Equality Act just three days before attending his own son’s gay wedding.
If Republicans are even willing to condemn their own children, can we really trust our nothing-to-lose, retiring Senator Rob Portman’s support of marriage equality (by his own words, because he has a gay son)? Portman, in this newspaper, recently endorsed GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance who recently called marriage equality “a bizarre distraction.” Perhaps we should ask Sen. Portman’s son if marriage equality is “a bizarre distraction.”
Ohio, I am your son. And, yet, I can’t help but feel I’m claiming a home that’s embarrassed to claim me as its own. After all, what kind of home rejects its children? I am everything you wanted me to be: smart, kind, athletic, resourceful. My daydreams, too, are filled by memories of bare-feet on the summer asphalt, lazy afternoon swims in the river, and ball games on the Riverfront. And still, somehow I’m not enough. Still I’m not worth protecting. Enough.
My friends say Ohio will protect me and my right, as a gay man, to marry. I don’t believe them. Please prove me wrong.
Matt Devine was born and raised in Loveland, OH and is a graduate of St. Xavier High School. He currently lives in Palo Alto, CA and is on the board of Stanford’s LGBTQ+ Alumni Association.
