Medina family group appeals to Supreme Court against SOGI law (AUDIO)

COLUMBUS — As city officials claim challengers of a new divisive LGBT ordinance are ‘out for the count,’ one pro-family citizens’ group is telling its critics not to ‘count them out.’

Last summer the seven-member Medina City Council legislated their version of morality by passing a sexual orientation/gender identity (SOGI) policy. In response, a pro-family citizens’ group assisted by the Ohio Christian Alliance (OCA) is leading an effort to put a referendum on the ballotl giving citizens a voice on the important issue. After being told their effort in signature-gathering fell short, the group is not backing down.

The “Concerned Citizens for Medina City Committee” (CCMCC) group has decided to file a lawsuit at the Supreme Court.

“Today we are here at the Ohio Supreme Court to secure resolution concerning the voting rights of the citizens of Medina City who wrongfully had their signatures invalidated from the referendum petition on Medina City Ordinance 112-19, “said Chris Long, President of OCA during a press conference Monday.  “When City Council passed this ordinance, the citizens exercised their right to circulate a petition of referendum to place the measure on the ballot for the registered voters to decide.”

The SOGI policy will require students from Medina City Schools to be forced to share restrooms, locker rooms, and showers with students of the opposite biological sex. In addition, biological female students would be forced to compete in sports and for college scholarships with boys who claim to be females.

During the process, CCMCC collected (1,173) referendum petition signatures and submitted them to Medina City Finance Director Keith Dirham on July 31, 2019. The Finance Director held the petitions for ten days, and then forwarded them to the Medina County Board of Elections. The Board of Elections reviewed the petitions and then issued its report that (260) petition signatures had been invalidated, bringing the total valid signatures to (939), forty-four short of what is needed to place the measure on the ballot. 

However, after CCMCC obtained a public records request of the Board’s findings, it was discovered that fifty-nine signatures had been disqualified for what the board termed “non-matching signatures.” The citizens committee then secured forty-seven sworn affidavits with photocopy ID evidence from petition signers whose signatures had been invalidated, attesting that it indeed was their signature on the referendum petition. 

On November 18^th Marie Nauth, a registered elector in the City of Medina and a signer of the referendum petition, submitted the Petition Protest Appeal along with the forty-seven sworn affidavits with proof of identity to the Medina County Board of Elections.  The Medina County Board of Elections took no action in response to the citizens’ request for a hearing.

According to CCMCC’s suit, “Forty-seven voters’ signatures were wrongly invalidated, as well as the other signers of the referendum petition denied their right to the ballot. This is a violation of everything we stand for concerning the integrity of elections. The right of the people’s referendum should not be denied when they have clearly gathered enough signatures.” 

Chris Long wants to see citizens exercise their Constitutional rights as a secular culture mandates a dangerous LGBT agenda.

“It is our hope that the Court will see the injustice of the actions of the Medina County Board of Elections and local county officials who have been insistent on taking no action and tone deaf concerning the fundamental Constitutional right of its citizens to vote.”

While SOGI laws violate the privacy of others, and limits access to social services by driving out faith-based providers, there is little evidence discrimination is endemic of LGBT individuals. On the flip side, persons who espouse to the biological definition of gender continue to see political harassment added to economic disenfranchisement and ongoing systemic discrimination.

Despite growing pressures, SOGI laws are being defeated around the nation. In 2014 a SOGI law passed by Houston City Council was repealed by a super-majority of the city’s voters in a referendum.

According to the anti-religion organization The Human Rights Campaign, only twenty-three municipalities out of over seven hundred villages and cities inside Ohio have implemented SOGI laws.

See related article: