Fuck yeah, Ohio

I was born in Akron, Ohio. I grew up in a suburb called Stow. It’s been a long time since I lived in Ohio, but my dad still lives there, my sister still lives there, and I have a lot of friends and family there. I visit often.

My mom’s family helped organize Akron’s rubber workers—my Grandma Nellie has a cute story about John L. Lewis—and my paternal grandfather was a union leader. I was turning into a punk teen while all these labor Dems were turning into Reagan Republicans, so you can imagine my disdain. I have to say, though, that watching what’s been going on in Ohio over the past several years has been even more horrifying.

I have a trans kid and, in the run-up to the 2022 elections, my husband and I had serious conversations about whether our son and I would have to leave Michigan if Gretchen Whitmer didn’t win a second term. Knowing that going back home to Ohio was not an option made me sad and angry. Knowing that a lot of friends were stockpiling Plan B—for themselves and their daughters—also made me sad and angry.

So, I was absolutely delighted when Ohio voters soundly rejected a Republican ploy to keep reproductive justice off the ballot, and I am so very happy that, given the chance to enshrine abortion access in the state constitution, Ohioans chose to do just that—by a solid margin. I am pleased for my home state, and I am psyched to see that Dobbs is still driving people to the polls. (Huge props to Kentucky and Virginia, too.)

Let’s get old.

Lobby Day in Lansing

I’ve read good deal of analysis about how young women are fighting to preserve their reproductive autonomy but, in my work with Reproductive Freedom for All, I’ve also met a lot of old ladies who are pissed—women who remember life before Roe. These elders know how to get shit done and they have a lot of time and energy to devote to the causes that matter to them—something that’s not always true for younger women who are going to school, working fulltime, parenting small children. Conventional wisdom says that growing more conservative is an inevitable result of aging. I call bullshit. I’m just getting more radical. And I’m just now discovering my power.