Massive win: Ohio high court tosses drag ban from the ballot
David beat Goliath in Bellafontaine
Welcome to a special Monday breaking news edition of Progress Report.
As I mentioned in last night’s newsletter, I’ll be doing more frequent breaking news posts over in our notes and threads, mostly for premium subscribers. Because this is a direct breaking news follow-up to an exclusive feature that we ran last month, I’m sending it out wide to everyone.
It’s also the sort of story that I hope to produce more regularly, spotlighting issues that the national press ignores.
Please consider a subscribing and/or donating to keep Progress Report afloat and sustainable. Far-right extremists are financed by billionaires and corporations, who invest in conservative outlets, think tanks, and law firms to advance their interests. We rely on forward-thinking readers like you. Please help us fight the good fight.
The Ohio Supreme Court on Sunday blocked an anti-drag initiative from appearing on the ballot in small city of Bellafontaine this November.
The unanimous decision included a stinging rebuke of Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. The Republican voted to place the initiative on the ballot in late September after the Logan County Board of Elections had reached an impasse.
“Secretary LaRose and the board of elections abused their discretion and disregarded the law in overruling relators’ protest,” the court wrote. “Accordingly, we grant the requested writ of mandamus.”
The initiative, which sought to ban drag performers from appearing in public spaces or any place that a child could conceivably see them, failed to qualify due to underhanded tactics by its supporters.
Over the summer, after collecting the nearly 800 signatures required for ballot certification, its proponents violated state law by changing the cover page of the petition. While LaRose argued that the switch represented a “technical defect” the court found that the backers were clearly aware of the importance.
With just days to go before early voting begins, Logan County now must reprint mail-in ballots with one less choice for voters to consider. The highest profile race remaining in Bellafontaine is the mayoral election, which pits an insurgent Republican against Democratic nominee Tim Steinhelfer, the attorney who just convinced the state Supreme Court to toss the anti-drag initiative.
A native of Bellafontaine who worked as a union organizer before going to law school in New Orleans, Steinhelfer returned home upon receiving his law degree to open up a small practice downtown. He began running for mayor early this year on a platform focused on economic development, and took on the anti-drag initiative case in August after nobody else was willing to step up.
“It’s kind of a David and Goliath situation where you have a lawyer in his third year of practicing law going up against the state attorney general, but I think I'm going to beat him,” Steinhelfer, who won Logan County’s Lawyer of the Year award last year, told us in September.
The saga began last December, at Bellefontaine’s annual Christmas parade. The event featured 40 different floats, one of which featured a local drag queen named Blond Vanity riding a jet ski. A few local hysterical conservatives, no doubt influenced by the national right-wing panic over drag performers, took great exception to the display, and soon enough, rumors began to fly around on Facebook, one more absurd than the next.
One resident insisted that Blond Vanity was gyrating and provocatively dressed (she wore a full-body elf costume), while another rumor going around claimed that her genitals were showing (again, she wore a full-body elf costume).
The spirit of inclusion so offended two conservative residents that they showed up at the first city council meeting of the new year to demand a new ordinance to ban future public appearances by drag queens.
A resident named Devin Palmer claimed that her 10-year-old son had “found a ticket during the parade with some content being advertised of a sexual nature,” while others even suggested that pamphlets on grooming were being handed out during the parade.
The reality was far less sordid: The Olive Tree, the jet ski float’s sponsor, handed out candy canes with a tag that promised “all were welcome” at the first-ever gay bar in Logan County. The tag also included a coupon for a parade afterparty, an event that was clearly marked as an 18+ gathering.
Danielle Stefaniszyn, who joined Palmer to protest the drag performances at that first city council meeting, made it a bit more unequivocal when she urged the council to “preserve Bellefontaine and make more towns like us.”
At the next council meeting, two weeks later, supporters of The Olive Tree turned out en masse. The event was so packed — it was probably record attendance, but they don’t track such things — that it required an overflow room for interested parties.
The conservatives’ appeal to lawmakers failed — “obviously, the city council does not take any such blatantly unconstitutional actions,” Steinhefler says — and so they went to work collecting signatures for a ballot initiative.
His cautious confidence was proven correct, the decision to put campaigning on hold while working on the brief late last month validated by the 7-0 decision handed down by the court’s 4-3 GOP majority.
“Today the arc of the moral universe was bent a little bit closer toward justice because of the brave souls who believed in our cause. I couldn’t ask for better clients,” Steinhelfer told Progress Report on Monday.
As for LaRose, he received a hard, institutional spanking from the high court’s justices.
“Secretary LaRose also asserts that we cannot substitute our judgment for his and that we must defer to his interpretation and application of the relevant election statutes,” they wrote. “However, we recently clarified that the judiciary is never required to defer to an administrative interpretation of the law.”
Wait, Before You Leave!
Progress Report has raised over $7 million dollars for progressive candidates and causes, breaks national stories about corrupt politicians, and delivers incisive analysis, and goes deep into the grassroots.
This is a second full-time job, and I’m looking to expand. There are no corporations, dark money think tanks, or big grants sponsoring this work. It’s all people-powered. So, I need your help.
For just $5 a month, you can buy a premium subscription that includes premium member-only newsletters with original reporting and analysis.
You can also make a one-time donation to Progress Report’s GoFundMe campaign — doing so will earn you a shout-out in the next weekend edition of the newsletter!
Bellefontaine resident here and so excited about this. Hoping for just as good fortune for Tim in the mayoral election! Thanks for featuring our town's story on this publication :)