Backers of gender equality legislation that’s been proposed again in Ohio say they are making slow headway in getting the civil rights protection they think the bill would afford them.
Alana Jochum with Equality Ohio says civil rights protections for LGBTQ Ohioans are being passed cities in Ohio’s cities, including recently in Cleveland.
“We have gone from 14% of Ohioans from having access to a remedy to 27%," Jochum says.
Democratic Rep. Nickie Antonio has sponsored the bill four times over the last 8 years. She says she’s gradually getting support from more conservative leaning business groups like the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
“Over the summer, I got a letter from the Ohio Manufacturing Association, another one of those groups that is considered pretty conservative but is in support," Antonio says.
Antonio, whose term is up at the end of this year, says she will fight for passage of the bill through the lame duck session. And she says, if she’s elected to the Ohio Senate this fall, she will fight for the legislation there too.
