By Morgan Trau | WEWS via CNN
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A transgender candidate for the Ohio House has been disqualified because she only circulated petitions with her legal name, instead of her former name — and it has put multiple other LGBTQ+ candidates in flux.
Vanessa Joy reached out to Statehouse reporter Morgan Trau to share her situation. She was supposed to be a Democratic candidate for House District 50, covering Stark County, and she collected all the signatures she needed to run.
“The only thing that we can do is try to fight back and that’s why there are so many trans candidates in Ohio,” Joy said.
She is a trans woman, one of the at least four running for state representative. Each is running to fight against the growing number of anti-trans legislation.
Joy is also the stepdaughter of state Rep. Bill Roemer (R-Richfield), but the two do not have a relationship and have never met. Although the Republican hasn’t sponsored or cosponsored legislation impacting the trans community, he has voted in favor of legislation banning trans youth from having gender-affirming care and participating in athletics. He is one of the Republicans she wants to fight back against.
But she just learned she won’t be on the ballot.
“I would have had to have my dead name on my petitions,” Joy said. “But 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.”
Dead names are the former names of many transgender people.
Even though Joy legally changed her name and her birth certificate — which she provided to the county board — a little-known law is preventing her from running due to when she changed her name.
A law from the 1990s requires all candidates to list on their signature petitions any name changes within five years, Case Western Reserve University elections law professor Atiba Ellis explained.
“It would be fair for the candidate to disclose their identity including prior…
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