From the Executive Director » Politics

Intolerant Ohio? How Ohio Welcomes Gays

Karla Rothan — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 20:35:41 +0000

All Sides with Ann Fisher – WOSU NPR 89.7 featured a discussion today about the recent ranking of Ohio as the 46th Most Tolerant State in the United States.

Daily Beast Ranking Page

The Daily Beast ranked Ohio as one of the least tolerant states on gay rights. We’ll talk about how Ohio compares to other states as welcoming or not welcoming to gays, with Daily Beast Reporter Lauren Streib, Outlook Media Co-Publisher Michael Daniels, Real Living HER Founding Partner/Realtor Terry Penrod, and Family Policy Network Policy Analyst Alexander Mason.

46, Ohio
Tolerance score: 40 out of 100
Hate crime score: 15 out of 40
Discrimination score: 16 out of 40
Gay rights score: 1 out of 10
Religious Tolerance score: 8 out of 10
Hate crime incidents per 100,000 residents:: 3.1 (33 out of 50 states)
Discrimination cases filed per 100,000 residents:: 24.2 (44 out of 50 states)
Population in support of same-sex marriage:: 45%
Population that believes many religions lead to eternal life:: 76%

Thanks Terry Penrod and and Michael Daniels for expressing your views!

Watch the Show Here

Central Ohio GLBT Meet the Candidates Night for Ohio and National Races

Karla Rothan — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:51:52 +0000

On Thursday, October 2, 2008 Stonewall Columbus hosted another “Meet the Candidates Night.” Members of the GLBT community of Central Ohio were able to visit with candidates from both the republican and democratic parties. Last year two legislators, Dan Stewart (D) and David Goodman (R) sponsored the housing and employer non discrimination bill. Audience members were very interested find out which of the candidates were behind this bill and which would support future efforts to have it passed and turned into law. Overall, everyone attending the forum seem to feel as if they really knew how each candidate felt about our GLBT issues.

Photos from Forum

Click here to view the photos from the forum.

Franklin County LGBT Candidates Night at the Center – Watch It

Karla Rothan — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:53:25 +0000

Last Tuesday, the Center on High hosted “Meet the Candidates Night.” The purpose of the event is to allow the community to meet and ask questions of those individuals in our community who are running for public office. Rob Berger did a fantastic job organizing the event and he also moderated the evening. Attendees wrote questions for the candidates and each had to answer the questions within a minutes time. What was really great about the evening was that so many candidates both Democrat and Republican showed up to speak with our GLBT community. All of them were very interested in our community issues and challenges. As a voter I left the forum feeling very confident and secure about the votes that I will cast in the next month. I encourage everyone to find some time to have some heart to heart and face to face talks with these individuals who are running for office. If you were not able to make it to the center, we taped it for your enjoyment. Although the forum was not intended to be a debate, it did get rather heated so take a moment and check it out. It’s getting HOT in HERE!

Click here to watch the entire forum