COLUMBUS, Ohio (LifeSiteNews) — A Democrat who claims to be a woman and accordingly changed his name was disqualified from an Ohio House of Representatives race due to a law that requires candidates to disclose recent name changes.
Real estate photographer “Vanessa Joy,” a 42-year-old, gender-confused man, had gathered a sufficient number of signatures to run for office in Ohio’s House District 50 in deep-red Stark County. However, he was informed of his ineligibility to run for office due to his failure to make note of the fact that he changed his name on his birth certificate and other documents, The Hill reported.
A 1995 Ohio law requires candidates to disclose any name changes made in the past five years, the outlet reported.
“I would have had to have my dead name [sic] on my petitions,” the Democrat told News 5 Cleveland, employing the term often used by transgender-identifying individuals, “dead name,” to describe their true name given to them by their parents at birth.
“[I]n the trans community, our dead names are dead; there’s a reason it’s dead — that is a dead person who is gone and buried,” he said.
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The Ohio law, which contains exceptions for name changes due to marriage, is not often enforced. The gender-confused candidate stated in comments to a local news outlet that he had been unaware of the rule.
In comments to News 5 Cleveland, Joy said that he would have disclosed his birth name if he had been aware of the law.
“If I had known that I had to put my dead name on my petitions, I personally would have because being elected was important to me,” he said. “But for many it would be a barrier to entry because they would not want their names on the petitions.”
“It’s a danger and that name is dead,” he said.
“Vanessa Joy” isn’t the only transgender-identifying person running for office in Ohio. Several other individuals who identify as transgender and have changed their names are also running and have already been certified by their boards despite having not disclosed their birth names.
It’s unclear whether the other candidates’ eligibility will be called into question after Joy’s disqualification.
For his part, Joy responded “undoubtedly” when asked whether he thought the enforcement of the 1995 rule would stymie the political campaigns of other gender-confused candidates.
“We’re going to see this happening all over the place,” he said, suggesting that similar laws could be used to block the candidacy of gender-confused individuals. “This could be a snowball if I’m just the start of it. This is horrible news for the trans community.”
The Associated Press reported that Joy appealed his disqualification on Thursday. He has expressed a desire to change the Ohio law and intends to obtain legal representation. The state House race primary is slated to be held on March 19.
Meanwhile, the disqualification of the gender-confused Democrat comes as the state of Ohio has made recent headlines over transgender-related issues.
Late last month, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed HB 68, the Saving Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, which was designed to protect children and teenagers from transgender procedures and safeguard girls’ sports from the incursions of males claiming to be “transgender,” LifeSiteNews previously reported. The measure had been passed by both chambers of the state legislature by wide margins.
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Republican lawmakers are expected to move to override the veto, a course of action that has earned the approval of Ohio Right to Life.
After pushback from conservatives and other opponents of transgender ideology, DeWine has subsequently issued an executive order prohibiting transgender surgeries for minors.