The Ohio Ballot Board blocked a proposed amendment that would remove Ohio’s ban on gay marriage in the state’s constitution from going forward.
In a 3-2 party line vote, the Ohio Ballot Board ruled the proposal actually contains two amendments, preventing it from moving forward to signature gathering.
Ohio Equal Rights, the group behind the amendment, can now either challenge the ruling through the Ohio Supreme Court or collect 1,000 signatures for each of the two amendments and petition Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to certify the title and summary language.
One amendment would eliminate Ohio’s ban on gay marriage in the state’s constitution.
The other amendment would add language to the state’s constitution protecting citizens from discrimination based on race, color, creed or religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression regardless of sex assigned at birth, pregnancy status, genetic information, disease status, age, disability, recovery status, familial status, ancestry, national origin, or military and veteran status.
“It seems to me reasonable that there are voters in Ohio that may be supportive of repealing the marriage agreement, so to allow, in the Ohio constitution, the institution of marriage between any two loving couples that want to be together, but that may not want to support creating 12 new protected classes under a bunch of different listed circumstances,” said Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said during Wednesday’s Ballot Board meeting. “And so in order to provide voters that choice, it seems apparent to me that it would be good to give them those two as two separate amendments,”
Republican state Sen. Theresa Gavarone, LaRose, and Ballot Board member Tony Schroeder, also an Ohio Republican Party State Central Committee member, voted in favor of splitting the amendment.
Ohio Equal Rights did not immediately know if they were going to challenge the ruling in an attempt to get it back to one issue or go forward as two separate amendments. Republicans hold a 6-1 majority on the Ohio Supreme Court.
“That is a conversation within our leadership team and with our legal counsel as to what our next steps are,” said Lis Regula, with Ohio Equal Rights.
He doesn’t agree these are two separate amendments.
“How can you say that you have equal rights if people are not allowed to marry the person that they love and benefit from the privileges of marriage?” Regula said. “This amendment is in line with that view of making Ohio welcoming to all and making sure that we don’t continue losing people to other states that are more willing to let people be who they are and let people live their lives while also protecting their rights.”
Ohio Equal Rights is trying to get on the 2026 ballot, which will also include the governor’s race and other statewide executive offices.
Yost certified the title and summary language on July 3 after Ohio Equal Rights submitted 2,000 signatures to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose on June 30. They needed to submit 1,000 valid signatures from registered Ohio voters.
Corey Colombo, a lawyer with McTigue & Colombo, testified during the meeting about how the proposed amendment “all relates to the single general purpose of equal rights of all Ohioans.”
“I have a hard time, and maybe clarify exactly, how is it the same purpose to allow biological men in the same locker room as girls, when they’re not consenting, how is that the same general purpose as allowing people of the same sex consensually to get married?” Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, asked Colombo after his testimony.
Colombo said there’s nothing in the language that specifically discusses bathrooms.
“Everything in this proposal fits under the umbrella of equal rights of all Ohio,” he said.
State Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, and state Rep. Terrence Upchurch, D-Cleveland, voted against breaking up the amendment.
“This is simple, in my opinion,” Upchurch said to reporters after the meeting. “This is about protecting all Ohio’s under the law. … Whenever we’re able to get this on the ballot, it’s my intention to stand beside these folks to get this done.”
Ohio’s constitution includes a ban on same-sex marriage after 61.7% of Ohio voters approved an amendment in 2004 that says marriage is only between one man and one woman. The United States Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in 2015 through the Obergefell case originating out of Ohio.
However, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called on justices to revisit Obergefell after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“People don’t necessarily understand that the status of marriage equality in Ohio right now is entirely dependent on Obergefell,” Regula said. “If it changes, I think there’s going to be a lot of people who are surprised … cousin Joe and his husband aren’t married anymore. … That is a rude awakening that I don’t want to see people have to struggle with.”
Regula said they modeled their language off of Nevada’s Equal Rights Amendment that voters passed back in 2022.
This story was originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal and republished here with permission.
This article appears in Jul 9-22, 2025.