O Where O Where O Where O was Equality Ohio….

Posted by BoShuff on October 19th, 2008 filed in General Election, LGBT, Sunday Rant

On October 8th, a full week ago, the Columbus Dispatch wrote an article on this mailer:
Bigoted Ohio Republican Party Mailer

Buckeye State Blog picked it up as well.

Both of these blog articles should have prompted a swift response from Equality Ohio. Yet, the first time we heard from Equality Ohio was in a quote in Outlook Weekly that hit the stands a week after the story first broke.

Checking the Equality Ohio blog, the Equality Ohio website, even the Equality Ohio Campaign Fund for their timely and creative response…..

…crickets…

Where was Equality Ohio? Equality Ohio was not quoted in either article and couldn’t even be bothered to post a comment in either blog. Is there a press release out there somewhere? A public comment from the Executive Director?

The Ohio Democratic Party on the other hand is addressing this mailer and other attacks used by the Republican Party head on in an upcoming conference call with LGBT leadership. So wait, we have a statewide LGBT organization whose 5 year plan calls for both impacting the Legislative environment and building political power for the LGBT community. Yet it is the party that calls a meeting to combat homophobia and distortions of the LGBT community in campaigns.

This meeting should have been called on October 8th, called by Equality Ohio. The response to using the LGBT community as a wedge issue should come from the community and supposedly Equality Ohio is the organization to do this. I wonder if Equality Ohio even got invited to the meeting. This was the perfect opportunity for Equality Ohio to show leadership and they did not.

It seems that having hobnobbed with Kate Clinton and Josh Radnor, Equality Ohio doesn’t have to actually worry about the upcoming elections at all. Actually, the ironic part is that Kate Clinton comments on the upcoming elections all the time over at Bilerico Project where she is a regular contributor.

I looked all over the Equality Ohio website to find ways that I could volunteer with their electoral efforts. I looked for links to their endorsed candidates so that I could donate in a way that would show it came from the LGBT community. I looked for statements on the news blog about events for candidates. Nothing.

How exactly can you build political power and influence the legislative environment when you sit out the biggest election in our lifetimes? How can you expect to have friends in the statehouse or the Congress if you never put troops on the ground for your candidates?

Movie Tours, fundraisers, celebrity appearances, fundraisers, and community surveys will not accomplish any of Equality Ohio’s objectives. Work will.

Equality Ohio was born from the ashes of the election in 2004 that saw the passage of Issue 1 - banning marriage within Ohio for our families. In 2006, Equality Ohio played a major role in electing Ted Strickland to Ohio Governor and ensured that the voice and impact of the LGBT community in Ohio was heard. The electoral efforts of Equality Ohio put the organization on the map and helped move forward the mission of the organization. They put boots on the ground and people on the phones and won the respect of the greater progressive community in Ohio.

Has the Executive Director simply decided to abandon the work done by the volunteers, staff and boards two years ago or has the organization as a whole simply decided that there is some mysterious way to impact the legislative environment easier than choosing who is in the Legislature. Maybe they know of a way to build political power without being involved in the political process, but whatever is going on Equality Ohio seems to have shot themselves in the foot on this one.