A transgender woman running for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives was disqualified from the race due to a rarely enforced state law requiring her to put her “deadname” on her candidate petition.
Vanessa Joy is one of four trans candidates running for state House seats to fight against Ohio’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Last year, Joy submitted paperwork to run as a Democrat for House District 50, a solidly Republican area south of Akron.
But on Tuesday, Stark County election officials informed Joy that she would not be eligible to run in the March 19 primary even though she had collected the necessary number of signatures. Joy had legally changed her name and birth certificate in 2022, but she was told by election officials that she failed to include her former name on the petition, which is required by a little-known state law.
The 1995 Ohio law states that any person who runs for public office must include their present name and any name changes from the last five years ― and failure to do so will result in suspension from office. The law does include exceptions for candidates who change their names after marriage.
Joy told News 5 Cleveland that she hadn’t known about this rule ― and it does not appear anywhere in Ohio’s 2024 candidate requirement guide.
The Ohio secretary of state’s office said it was aware of Joy’s disqualification.
“The law applies to everyone. It is cynical and unfair to criticize the Stark County Board of Elections for their unanimous and bipartisan decision to follow Ohio law,” Melanie Amato, the director of communications for the secretary of state, wrote in an email to HuffPost.
Amato said the guide does not include every statute, including this 1995 law, but she said that candidates have a right to appeal a board’s decision in court.
Officials from the Stark County Board of Elections office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For trans candidates in particular, this law carries with it the possibility of being forcibly outed even if candidates have gone through a legal name change process.
“In the trans community, our dead names are dead; there’s a reason it’s dead ― that is a dead person who is gone and buried,” Joy told a reporter at News 5 Cleveland.
Another transgender candidate, Bobbie Arnold, who is running for a different Ohio House seat, told Cleveland.com that she was disqualified for not putting her former name on her candidate petition.
However, as of Wednesday, after her interview with the local news outlet, the Montgomery County Board of Elections website showed that Arnold’s petition was certified. It is unclear whether her candidacy will be affected by this law.
“In the trans community, our dead names are dead; there’s a reason it’s dead ― that is a dead person who is gone and buried.”
– Democratic state House candidate Vanessa Joy
Joy said this law would “undoubtedly” deter trans people from running for office.
Ari Faber, who is running to unseat a Republican in Belmont County, said he is being forced to run under his birth name because he hasn’t legally changed his name.
“The law they are using is archaic and incredibly anti-woman and anti-LGBTQ+,” Faber told Cleveland.com. “It’s being selectively applied to target transgender candidates, and that is unacceptable.”
All four of these political newcomers are fighting to represent rural areas in Ohio and to push back against the onslaught of anti-LGBTQ policies and rhetoric by the state legislature’s Republican supermajority.
At the end of December, Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, vetoed HB 68, a bill that would bar young trans people from gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapies, and also ban trans students from school sports.
The rare Republican veto garnered outcry from Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and Donald Trump, who have pushed forward anti-trans rhetoric and promised, as president, that they would bar trans youth, and adults, from access to health care.
Ohio’s Republican lawmakers have signaled plans to override DeWine’s veto, and the state House is convening early for a special session on Wednesday to vote on this bill.
“The only thing that we can do is try to fight back,” Joy said. “That’s why there are so many trans candidates in Ohio.”