This week I held my fundraising event with Equality Ohio in Worthington. Our goal was to connect with community members and let them know the work that we are doing around the fight for equality. We held the event at House Wine where we were able to taste different wines, bid on auction items that I collected from local businesses, and ultimately raise awareness for the Ohio Fairness Act (HB 160).

Organizations such as Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio and Feminist Flag Corps were more than willing to donate items, which we are so appreciative of. Seeing non-profit organizations show up for each other is really important, and I think we forget that sometimes. I’m currently planning another fundraising event next week in Reynoldsburg, an area that we are hoping to connect with more. One of my goals for the summer was to hold two fundraising events (which take longer to put together than you would think) but we’re almost there.

A huge takeaway from doing this fellowship is that I do not think I’ll ever be able to separate myself from the reproductive healthcare fight. I know that I can be committed to several different issues at once, but at the end of the day I connect everything I do back to the repro rights movement. I think it is also important to recognize that safe, accessible abortion is heavily under attack in this current political climate. While I recognize we need anti-discrimination laws and better protections in Ohio for LGBTQ+ individuals, reproductive healthcare is also an LGBTQ+ issue. 

Long term, I could absolutely see myself starting my own non-profit dedicated to LGBTQ+ access to reproductive healthcare (abortion services, prenatal care, adoption services, STD testing, birth control, etc). Reproductive healthcare is often written off as a women’s issue and LGBTQ+ reproductive healthcare is written off as strictly an issue of equality – there is never a crossover. If we were able to overlap the lines of organizing then we would be able to create a stronger movement so that everyone could have safe, affordable and dignified access to reproductive healthcare.