Democracy Dies in Ohio

Ohio has done it again. And by again, I mean publicly embarrass me. 

In their most recent attacks against DEI — or what they erroneously think is DEI — Ohio Republicans have put forth the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, which does anything but. What the act does do is make college and university life Hell for students and teachers alike, while also scaring any potential students of public Ohio colleges away. 

This was introduced last year and failed. Now it’s back and this reanimated corpse is worse than before. Under the guise of ushering in a “Golden Age in Ohio Academia,” the Ohio Senate passed a bill that states institutions of higher education cannot teach that:

So because a few losers got their fee-fees hurt, higher education in Ohio has to suffer?

While the bill bans colleges and universities from making institutional statements on “controversial” topics like climate change, DEI programs, and marriage, it does require a U.S. history class with mandatory teachings on capitalism, readings and 5 essays on the Federalist papers, and readings from other seminal U.S. documents like Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

It’s pretty obvious to me that the bills’ sponsor, Jerry Cirino, has never read  Letter from a Birmingham Jail BECAUSE HOW COULD YOU READ THAT AND REQUIRE IT BE TAUGHT, WHILE BANNING DEI IN THE SAME BILL?

There’s a lot more fuckery, including provisions attacking tenure, banning full-faculty strikes, and requiring not only for universities to publicly post syllabi, but to list professor’s qualifications, schedule of classes they’re teaching, and their contact information — opening them up to potential harassment. 

A right-wing group has already compiled a DEI “watchlist” of over 50 (assuming now former) federal employees they found via political donations and social media posts. One person on the list who didn’t want to be identified for obvious reasons, told the New York Times:

The bill is so egregious that a local Republican elected official who was considered “the most conservative professor in Ohio” eviscerated the bill, calling it “a dumpster fire that threatens to incinerate free speech on campus.” In an article published by The New Republic, regarding free speech on campus he responded:

For almost all of my life, “leaders” from all political persuasions in this state have complained about brain drain — the emigration of highly educated and highly skilled people away from a place, industry, or organization. The population of Ohio is getting older and it’s showing. According to the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University, the population of Ohio is expected to decrease by 6% in the next 30 years and more than 1 in 4 Ohioans will be 60 years old and older by 2030. 

Ohio simply cannot afford to lose any more people and that is exactly what is going to happen if the Ohio legislature keeps passing monstrous legislation like anti-trans bathroom bills, anti-DEI bills, and keeps attacking democracy in general. 

As a born and raised Ohioan who is also a disabled, Queer Black woman, I am disgusted that I am living in a state that hates my very existence and the existence of those I love. The same state that birthed brilliant and talented Black people like Toni Morrison, Ruby Dee, the Isley Brothers, Bootsy Collins, and The O’Jays. The same place that was — at one point or another — home to the Black brilliance of Langston Hughes, Garrett Morgan, and many others. 

While Toni Morrison’s work  — specifically The Bluest Eye and Beloved, two books that are based in Ohio — are frequent targets of book bans nationwide, they are also the targets of book bans here in our home state. It’s as if they literally want to erase any sign that we were ever here. 

People in Ohio aren’t taking this shit lying down. When the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act was still in the Senate, more than 800 people submitted opponent testimony and it passed last month by a vote of 21-11, with two Republicans joining Democrats in opposition. 15 people gave proponent testimony in support. 

Now that it’s in the Ohio House, more than 700 people submitted opposition testimony this past Tuesday. The hope is that it will die in the House and not make it to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk because he’ll most likely sign it into law. 

With so much opposition you’d surely think this would cause Ohio Republicans to stop or at least scale it back, wouldn’t you? No. Not just because Donald Trump is in the White House, but because Ohio Republicans have found no use for democracy. 

We can begin with our legislative maps which is a saga so head turning and migraine inducing that I can’t explain it all here, but Katy Shanahan over at Democracy Docket broke down the decade of shenanigans. To put it short, Ohio voters went to the ballot box twice to pass legislation demanding more fair maps and you can guess what the Republican response was since we’re still voting on maps that were declared unconstitutional by our own state Supreme Court. 

Ohio Republicans have been in control of drawing our legislative maps for at least the past 40 years and those maps are perverted and distorted beyond all comprehension. But that’s how they stay in power, even when they’re indicted on 20 felony counts (he has since been convicted on all 20 charges). 

The most egregious spectacle is when they say that Ohio voters don’t know what we voted for when we pass ballot measures the right-wing legislature disagrees with. Like when we voted to legalize recreational marijuana or pass an amendment enshrining abortion rights into the state constitution, despite their best efforts to go against us. As of January of this year, the Ohio Attorney General (and gubernatorial candidate) is still trying to implement parts of the six-week abortion ban in Ohio. 

Republicans make up 74% of our state legislative seats and 80% of our Congressional delegation despite only nabbing 54% of statewide votes. Meanwhile, 56.6% of Ohioans voted to amend the state constitution to add abortion protections in 2023 (which is a higher percentage and total amount of votes more than what JD Vance got the previous year when he won his senate race). 

Democracy? In Ohio? I don’t know her.