New report identifies anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in Ohio

Close-Up of rainbow flag with crowd In background during LGBT Pride Parade. Getty Images.
Nearly 50 anti-LGBTQ incidents happened in Ohio in a year, according to a new report by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
GLAAD's Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker (ALERT) documented 932 anti-LGBTQ incidents nationwide from May 1, 2024 to May 1, 2025. A little more than half of all nationwide incidents targeted transgender and gender non-conforming people.
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These incidents led to 84 injuries (including one in Ohio) and 10 deaths, according to the report.
ALERT tracked these incidents through self-reports, media, social media posts and data sharing from partner organizations and law enforcement.
'This year, rollbacks in LGBTQ visibility and challenges to our rights are coupled with a sharp rise in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and disinformation across social media and political campaigns,' GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. 'It's only through awareness, collective action, and community that we can turn the tide toward greater safety and acceptance.'
The ACLU is currently tracking nearly 600 anti-LGBTQ bills nationwide, some of which are in Ohio.
Nearly half of the incidents in Ohio involved the Dayton Street Preachers hosting anti-LGBTQ protests at universities, events, street corners, Pride events, or outside the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.
Many of the Ohio incidents involved Pride flags being stolen last summer.
A transgender woman was injured while bartending a drag show in Columbus last July, according to the report. A man disrupted the show and was kicked out by the bartender, but the man punched the bartender and kicked down the glass door while yelling homophobic slurs, according to NBC4.
Back in March, someone threatened to shoot up an upcoming drag show event in Columbus in the comments of a Facebook event, according to the report.
In terms of anti-LGBTQ legislation, some anti-LGBTQ laws took effect in Ohio earlier this year, including banning Ohio transgender students from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. It also bans students from sharing overnight accommodations with people of the opposite sex from their assigned sex at birth at a K-12 school.
Republicans have introduced other measures targeting the LGBTQ community this year.
Ohio House Bill 190 would prohibit school employees from calling a student a name that is not listed on their birth certificate and would ban them from using pronouns that do not align with their biological sex.
Ohio House Bill 172 would not allow minors age 14 and older to receive mental health services without parental consent. Currently, mental health professionals are permitted to provide outpatient mental health services to minors 14 and older on a temporary basis without parental consent.
State Rep. Johnathan Newman, R-Troy, introduced both bills and said H.B. 172 is a follow-up to a law that took effect earlier this year that requires educators out a student's sexuality to their parents.
House Bill 249 would ban drag performers from performing anywhere that isn't considered a designated adult entertainment facility.
On the Democratic side, state Reps. Eric Synenberg and Anita Somani recently introduced the Marriage Equality Act which would place put a constitutional amendment on the November 2026 ballot that would enshrine marriage equality in the state constitution. This is in response to a constitutional amendment Ohioans passed in 2004 that defines marriage as 'only a union between one man and one woman.'
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