House District 13: Nickie Antonio, a candidate making an impact
By Phillip Kail
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, OHIO- As an openly gay member of the Ohio House, Rep. Nickie Antonio has had her sights set on improving equality for homosexuals in Ohio.
“I was underestimated when starting, but fought to improve equality for people who made me stand out in my district,” Antonio said in a telephone interview. “This has led to my gaining support in my community, and helped me to tackle the issues I saw in my own hometown.”
“Vast improvements have been made in the effort to gain equal rights for homosexuals in Ohio thanks in part to many passionate people and the legislation I helped get passed in an effort to create equal rights,” Antonio said. She gave most of the credit for her success to being inspired by others.
When asked who inspired her most she said, “Women in a leadership role. Women such as Shirley Chisholm, who was the first black woman to run for president, inspired me to want to make a difference in politics.”
In her hometown of Lakewood, Ohio, Antonio urged the city council to create a nondiscrimination ordinance to protect the legal rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. This ordinance ensured that everyone would have equal opportunity with jobs, education and public housing, without being discriminated against due to sexual orientation. This is just one small example of how Antonio has impacted the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
Antonio is up for reelection, and she has big plans for her fourth term in office. She wants to work on improving as much as she can in Ohio. She has already begun to make an impact on a different issue, domestic violence, with a campaign that started in her own community.
She recently presented legislation known as the Safe at Home Bill that would restrict convicted domestic abusers from being able to purchase firearms, thus cutting down on repeat offenders. Under federal law, it is illegal for convicted domestic abusers to purchase firearms, but Ohio does not have a law in place to prevent that currently.
“My main goal is to impact my district and the entire state of Ohio. I chose to take on the more challenging issues because I want to make a positive effect where it is needed most. These include LGBT issues, domestic violence and, most recently, the opiate crisis in Ohio,” Antonio said.
With her fourth term soon to begin — since Antonio is the only candidate on the ballot in her District 13 — she decided to team up with fellow Democratic Rep. Janine Boyd, in the hope of making a major difference in their communities and the entire state.
Boyd, who is the Democratic candidate and incumbent in District 9, took questions following the proposal of the Safe at Home Bill. The press conference was held in Lakewood, Ohio, on Oct. 4. When Boyd was asked about the main goal behind this legislation, she said, “Nickie and I hope to tackle the constant issue of domestic violence.”
During this press conference, both Antonio and Boyd talked about the rise in domestic violence taking place in Ohio and argued that something needs to be done about it. Antonio is now busy spreading the word about the magnitude and depth of the problem they want to solve.
“The first step is to increase gun laws. Domestic violence often leads to violent crimes that could be avoided if there were stricter gun laws,” Antonio explained in an article that she wrote for the Lakewood Observer.
She also mentioned, in an interview with Election Reflections, that the main impetus for her decision to tackle domestic violence was a news article about orphaned children who lost their mothers to gun-related domestic violence. She knew that she wanted to make a difference, not only to the women affected, but also to the children who were forced to grow up in foster care after being left without a mother, and with a father who was likely incarcerated following his acts of violence.
If passed by the state, this bill aims to decrease domestic and violent criminal activity in Ohio and help people feel safer in their communities by disarming convicted abusers.
In their Oct. 3 press conference on the Safe at Home Bill, Antonio and Boyd expressed that domestic violence is a growing problem in Ohio. This bill would prevent convicted criminals from being able to easily obtain a gun which will lead to fewer guns on the street also.
As far as progress on this bill is concerned, Antonio said in a recent phone interview “I will likely have to reintroduce this bill in the next Ohio Generally Assembly.” The reason is that the support is not there as much as needed right now, but she will be pushing to get this bill passed during her fourth term in office.
Antonio has led many campaigns in the fight against sexual discrimination during her political career that has led to more equal rights for homosexuals in Ohio. She hopes that the skills she gained from fighting for same sex marriage and equal rights in Ohio for so many years will help her build a strong campaign against domestic violence as she has the experience to lead a campaign like this.
Antonio also hopes to continue with her other project, which is helping to clean up the opiate drug crisis in Ohio, while also trying to improve healthcare for lower income families. She mentioned in the telephone interview that her current goal to take on this new issue, and she hopes to gain more funding to help back her in an attempt to reduce the opiate crisis and cut down on addiction, which she said was the biggest problem right now for Ohio.
