Ohio doesn’t have a standalone hate crime statute. Instead, the state relies on an “ethnic intimidation” law that allows prosecutors to elevate a crime from a misdemeanor to a felony if a suspect targeted someone based on their “race, color, religion, or national origin.”
But a new bipartisan bill to create a formal hate crimes law could ultimately exclude LGBTQ victims.
The bill — HB 306 — would create a new offense of “hate crime” in cases where a victim was allegedly targeted for violence because of personal characteristics — including race, religion, sex, disability, political affiliation, age, military status, familial status, ancestry, national origin, or involvement in a labor dispute.
It would prohibit people from “terrorizing” others — defined as causing “a person of ordinary emotions and sensibilities” to fear for their personal safety — through violence or intimidation. A person could only be charged under the proposed law if they make a direct threat and have the “apparent ability” to carry out violence.
Prosecutors could elevate an offense to the next higher degree if the crime is proven to be motivated by bias against a protected class. For example, a first-degree misdemeanor could be elevated to a fifth-degree felony if a person targeted the victim because of their personal characteristics.
However, the bill does not include explicit protections for LGBTQ people and deliberately excludes transgender people.
Even though sexual orientation is not mentioned in the bill, Ohio State Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania Township), the bill’s co-sponsor, cited sexual orientation as a protected characteristic while testifying in favor of the measure during a February 25 hearing of the Ohio House Judiciary Committee, according to the Ohio Capital Journal.
The bill’s other co-sponsor, State Rep. Dontavius Jarrells (D-Columbus), told the Ohio Capital Journal he believes crimes targeting members of the LGBTQ community would fall under the bill’s protections for “sex.”
Jarrells said the decision not to explicitly mention LGBTQ identity in the legislation was meant to avoid making the bill too “tailored or narrow” — suggesting that including LGBTQ-specific language could cost the measure support from conservative lawmakers.
“We were really intentional about making sure this bill reflects inclusive interpretation,” he said. “But do it in a way where the bill is not politicized because hate is hate, regardless of whether you are Black, white, Jewish, religious or gay.”
LGBTQ groups have criticized the bill for lacking explicit protections for sexual orientation, arguing that without specific language, prosecutors may decline to bring charges against perpetrators who target people for being gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
State Rep. Eric Synenberg (D-Beachwood) questioned why the bill does not include protections for gender identity.
“I don’t believe someone that can change something about themselves on a whim, on a daily basis, is constitutionally protected,” Williams said in response.
Critics note that while Williams claims gender can be “changed” each day, the legislation would still make political affiliation — which can shift based on people’s political views — a protected class.
David Ryan Winters, a 40-year-old North Carolina man who spent nearly a decade stalking, harassing, and threatening gay men in the Raleigh-Durham area, has been sentenced to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to five counts of cyberstalking.
Prosecutors said Winters singled out the men because of their "actual and perceived gender, gender identity and sexual orientation."
Winters pleaded guilty in September 2025. Chief Judge Richard E. Myers II sentenced him on February 24 to 44 months in prison on each count, with the sentences to run concurrently. He will also serve three years of supervised release and pay a $500 special assessment.
A coalition of at least 47 right-wing groups, operating under the name "Greater Than," has launched a coordinated campaign to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 marriage equality ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, part of a renewed push by social conservatives to reshape national marriage policy.
At the center of the campaign's argument is the claim that the sole purpose of marriage is to raise children, and that the Obergefell decision, along with the cultural shifts that followed it, violates children's rights.
The District of Columbia has settled a lawsuit brought by a veteran D.C. Department of Corrections officer who alleged anti-gay discrimination, agreeing to pay him $500,000.
Sgt. Deon Jones, a 28-year veteran of the Department of Corrections, filed the lawsuit in 2021 alleging violations of the D.C. Human Rights Act after supervisors and co-workers subjected him to discrimination because he is a gay man, including harassment and homophobic slurs while he was performing his duties inside the jail.
"I've been called a , a sissy, and I've been called other names. I would call for assistance, and no assistance would arrive," Jones told D.C. FOX affiliate WTTG shortly after filing the lawsuit.
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