Dem. Ohio Gov Candidate Amy Acton Scheduled a Meeting With LGBTQ+ Advocates, Didn't Show Up, And Kicked Out Trans People Who Did

The meeting was supposed to be Acton's way of making up for calling trans girls "boys."

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Amy Acton, Ohio Democratic Candidate for Governor, has seen her relationship with the state’s LGBTQ+ community go from bad to catastrophic. Weeks after Acton endorsed a transgender sports ban and called transgender girls “boys,” the fallout has been intense: the Ohio Democratic Party forced its own Progressive and Pride caucuses to delete their criticism and a meeting the campaign promised would begin repairing the damage instead further inflamed tensions. Inside sources who have gone public now say the “listening session” was a debacle. Acton did not show up, her campaign manager barred Arienne Childrey—Vice Chair of the party’s Pride Caucus, a transgender candidate for the Ohio House, and Ohio’s first openly trans city council member—from even entering the Zoom call. When another advocate demanded to know why Childrey was barred, she was ejected. The Chair of the Progressive Caucus, Kim McCarthy, was locked in the waiting room during the entire “listening session.” And in the end, the campaign ultimately refused to apologize for calling trans girls “boys,” refused to retract Acton’s support for a transgender sports ban, and ended the meeting with no plans for what come next.

"I approached this meeting with high hopes—despite the fact that Acton would not be present—for a meaningful, productive conversation about the pain caused to the trans community by her recent comments and a commitment to repair the damage. That was not this meeting,” said Childrey in the aftermath of the meeting. "Our voices were actively suppressed. Myself and a number of other LGBTQ+ leaders were refused entry into a meeting we had been invited to attend. One trans advocate—Ciara Keeton—was booted from the meeting entirely just for pointing out the campaign's refusal to allow trans leaders into the room. When we were digitally locked out, it took the Chair of the Pride Caucus calling my personal phone and putting me on live speakerphone inside the room just for my voice to be heard."

According to notes obtained from a source who attended the meeting, the session opened with a blow: Dwayne Steward of Equality Ohio, reading what appeared to be a prepared statement, announced the organization was rescinding Acton’s “A” rating on its LGBTQ+ candidate scorecard. “This is not about punishment, but partnership,” Steward said. “Harm has been done. Attacking trans people isn’t just wrong, it is a losing strategy.” From there, the meeting devolved. Multiple attendees demanded to know why Childrey had been barred from an event about the LGBTQ+ community. Campaign manager Philip Stein responded only that the meeting was “mostly a space we want to listen to the folks that we picked here.” When pressed on why the event had been titled a “conversation” rather than a one-way listening session, Stein conceded that running this kind of meeting was “not his area of expertise” and that he could “only apologize for the way that the event was titled.”

From there, the meeting only worsened. Attendee after attendee demanded that Acton apologize for calling trans girls “boys,” chastised the campaign for convening a meeting with activists and then not sending the candidate, and pressed for concrete commitments. One leader did not mince words: “She is either a candidate who does not care enough to be here, or has a staff who told her it wasn’t important enough to be here.” another called Acton’s absence “borderline disrespectful” and turned on the party leadership: “Why isn’t ODP here? Kathleen Clyde should have been here. This is not how we get Ohio back.” Kyle Herman, Chair of the Pride Caucus, summarized the room’s frustration: “I am disappointed at how this was handled. I hoped to get clarification that could let us say, ‘See, Acton cares.’ This wasn’t it. It is very disappointing to have people disincluded from the call, especially people from the trans community.” When asked at the close of the meeting what the next steps were, Stein offered only: “This was first, that is what we have determined, and we will be figuring that out.” He did not commit to a retraction of Acton’s words or any specific action.

In the aftermath of the meeting, multiple attendees went public with their accounts Erick Detweiler, Vice Chairman of Rules and Bylaws of the Progressive Caucus stated: “I was shocked. I could not have prepared myself for the sheer contempt the campaign staff demonstrated toward Pride and Progressive Caucus leaders and the hundreds of grassroots constituents we represent. When they kicked the Pride Caucus Vice Chairwoman from the meeting without a chance to speak, it was as shocking as watching a friend be physically assaulted in front of me. When they retaliated against our trans rights advocate for the crime of demanding an explanation, I was forced to abandon hope of rationalizing the original act and recognized it for what it was: intentional targeted suppression of minorities; a preview into a future Acton administration. Drunk with power, unbeholden to the people, believing behind closed doors it is safe to shed its sheepskin.”

Detweiler continued: “They have, in a fit of transphobic sadism, forced a no-win scenario for their Democratic constituents and every Democratic nominee in Ohio: If this campaign loses, we will suffer under a Ramaswamy administration; but if we reward this campaign with victory, corporate Democrats at every level of government across the nation will think themselves justified in replicating this unconscionable campaign philosophy.”

The political math of Acton's position doesn't add up. Republicans aren't going to reward her for baseline levels of transphobia—Ramaswamy will run ads against her on any number of transgender issues regardless. What Acton’s anti-trans turn does is depress turnout among Ohio’s LGBTQ+ voters and allies in a race separated by less than a single percentage point. And the campaign's response to that reality has been, at every turn, to punish the people telling her so. The demand of LGBTQ+ Ohioans still stands unanswered. Until it is met, Acton has given Ohio's LGBTQ+ community every reason to believe she would govern exactly the way her campaign has conducted itself—with the people she claims to represent locked in the waiting room.