Wadsworth, Ohio’s first out nonbinary City Council candidate, Angela “Gie” May, didn’t think that they would win the Nov. 4 election.

May thought, at most, they would raise awareness for the Wadsworth Democratic Party in the majority-Republican Medina County district and help voters recognize an alternative to voting Republican. But by the end of Election Day, Wadsworth voters had chosen May over the incumbent, Republican David Parish.

May won the Ward 4 council seat by 13 votes. The results were close enough to call for a recount, but May said Parish and the mayor congratulated them the next day.

“My opponent walked up and shook my hand and said, ‘If you work as hard on City Council as you did during the campaign, I know you’re gonna do a good job.’”

‘Three months of very long days’

May’s campaign began when they passed out promotional stress balls during a parade at the city’s Blue Tip Festival, which celebrated the town’s history as the center of the matchstick industry. May bought 1,200 balls, which ran out by the end of the day.

May’s campaign manager, Leah Nichols, helped them get ready to canvass the ward. But May had a head start. 

“The people in this area saw me walking my dog on almost a daily basis, so even if they didn’t know who I was exactly, my face was familiar to them,” May said.

The ward race played to May’s strengths, as they preferred one-on-one conversations over public speaking.

During speeches, “people weren’t really seeing me,” May said. “They just saw this nervous person up there trying to remember all the bullet points.”

Talking to individual voters gave them a chance to show they were a “good person with reasonable plans” and to be their “authentic self.” 

For three months of “very long days,” May promoted safe and walkable streets, controlling energy prices and connecting residents to city business through ward meetups.

On voting day, May was in disbelief when the Medina County Gazette called the race at 11 p.m. and asked them for a statement the next day. May had a win speech and a lose speech — but no recount speech.

May didn’t feel comfortable declaring their win until the official results came in, but the Gazette responded back, 

“‘No, you won. That’s what happened.’ I was like, ‘Are you sure?’”

May is one of a handful of nonbinary elected officials

To May, winning the election showed that Wadsworth wants more diverse voices in their leadership.

“There are so many of us that do have different opinions and things we can bring to the table that can help balance things out,” May said. “Maybe Wadsworth was a lot more comfortable with people that are nontraditional, but they didn’t have that person who’s able to work with them [because] we were all kind of hiding, standing back and not willing to be that voice for fear of Nazis showing up.”

Being one of the few nonbinary elected officials in Ohio is “awesome,” May said. During the campaign, their LGBTQ+ identity rarely came up. They would only state their preferred name and pronouns before jumping into talking about their platform. 

As they begin the onboarding process for City Council, everyone has been respectful and asked May for their preferred way to be addressed. Despite running as Angela May, May prefers “Gie” and uses they/them pronouns.

May believes they got to where they are because they lack fear “down to a stupid level.”

“I’m going to do the things that make me happy, not what society is telling me I should be doing.” May said. 

Some voters worried that May would not be able to work with the Republican council members – who still hold a majority despite May and one other Democrat winning seats – which May said was “furthest from the truth.”

“Someone like me has spent my entire life working and dealing with people who didn’t, maybe even want to try and understand me, but getting upset and being reactionary doesn’t help us get to the goal,” May said. “You have to work in such a way to bring people to understand why this is important and why it’s valuable, and I want to be part of that process.”

“I want to be that positive influence. I don’t want to be a negative.”

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IGNITE ACTION

• To read The Buckeye Flame’s roundup of LGBTQ+ elected officials’ Nov. 4 elections, click here.
• To register to vote or to check your voter eligibility status in the state of Ohio, click here.
• To find contact information for your Ohio state representative, click here.
• To find contact information for your Ohio senator, click here.

The post An out nonbinary candidate just won a seat in their ruby-red Ohio town by 13 votes. They didn’t believe it, either. appeared first on The Buckeye Flame.

Local elected officials in rural Ohio have submitted testimony to the state House of Representatives in support of the “drag ban,” House Bill 249. 

At least one official, Mayor Jeff Whitaker of Greenville, did not inform the City Council or his constituents of his letter, which called violators of the proposed bill “degenerates.” He wasn’t the only official to submit testimony. South of Greenville, Butler County Auditor Nancy Nix sent a letter, and so did the mayor along with the council president of Celina which lies between Toledo and Cleveland.

Whitaker’s letter was spotted by Ryan Acker, the board president of LGBTQ+ Community Center of Darke County. The letter opens with Whitaker establishing that he is sharing his opinion “as mayor” and as his responsibility to his “oath of office” and God “to provide a safe, healthy environment in which our citizens can live, work and raise our families.”

“To have to worry about our children being subject to indecent exposure by the degenerates of our society is ridiculous,” Whitaker wrote. “[Society’s] level of decency has significantly declined over the years, and the moral fabric of our communities is constantly being challenged and compromised, which it need not be. This bill needs to be passed.”

Acker spoke at Greenville City Council’s next regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Greenville’s daily newspaper, the Daily Advocate, wrote that council members seemed surprised about the letter and were unaware that the mayor submitted testimony. Acker asked whether Whitaker did indeed write the letter, and to whom he was referring when he used the word “degenerate.” Whitaker stayed silent throughout the meeting.

Acker explained how HB 249 was going against the county’s Suicide Prevention Plan, gave historical context to how such laws were enforced in the past through random strip searches and explained how parents have a responsibility to watch their children at a Pride celebration. The ban would affect a local breast cancer awareness group who hosts drag events to raise funds.

“The City Council, I will say, did a really good job,” Acker said. “They listened, and they invited our center to provide the law and rationale for why we believe [HB 249 is] going to impact people that way.”

After the meeting, Whitaker told the Daily Advocate that he was the author and sent a copy to council members.

He defended his use of the word “degenerate” because it was not referring to a group of people, even though he is referring to violators of the bill as such.

“The word ‘degenerates’ was used in expressing my belief that indecent exposure in public constitutes lewd and obsene (sic) behavior,’” Whitaker wrote to the newspaper. “‘By the very definition of the word, such acts ‘fall below a normal or desirable level of moral quality and lead to the moral deterioration and decline of society.’ I contend that adult cabaret performances belong inside a cabaret and nowhere else.”

Whitaker did not respond to The Buckeye Flame’s requests for comment.

Nic Hollopeter is organizing a protest in response to Whitaker’s comments. A volunteer with the LGBTQ+ Community Center of Darke County, she helped organize the first Darke County Pride. She is involved with organizing the drag show every year. 

She learned of the mayor’s letter after a friend sent her the Daily Advocate article.

“‘You might want to get informed on this,’” Hollopeter recalled her friend saying. As Hollopeter read the letter, one word stood out — “degenerate.” She “took personal offense” to the word and thought it was “cowardly” of the mayor to wait until after the meeting to say he wrote the letter. Tim Stewart, Hollopeter’s romantic partner,  thought the mayor was using a social issue to “score brownie points with the far-right.”

But Hollopeter also knew the bill and the mayor’s testimony could directly impact her as a Pride organizer.

“Tim and I started talking about it more, and I was like, ‘We should do something about this,’” she recalled.

A county auditor weighs in

In nearby Butler County, Auditor Nancy Nix, who oversees finances and taxation for, , also submitted testimony, as a “Butler County resident and elected official.” She opined that drag is a “sexually oriented performance” that is taking place “in the presence of minors.”

“Our community expects public and family events to remain safe and appropriate for all ages,” Nix said.

The board of directors for Hamilton Pride, Butler County’s foremost LGBTQ+ organization, said HB 249 “does not represent the values of a caring, inclusive community that we value in Hamilton.”

“We witness firsthand the joy, creativity, and light that drag artists and other performers bring to our city,” the statement said. “They are our neighbors, friends, and small business owners. To label them a threat is not only incorrect but deeply harmful, fostering division where there should be unity.”

Nix, the Butler County commissioners and Hamilton’s mayor and council president did not respond to The Buckeye Flame’s requests for comment.

Celina officials support drag ban

Mayor Jeffrey Hazel and Councilman Jason King submitted separate testimonies in favor of the drag ban. Hazel’s letter used the city’s official seal and City Hall’s letterhead. King mentioned he is an elected official — though not his in-law relation to State Rep. Angie King.

In his letter, Hazel uses scare quotes when calling drag shows entertainment, and calls the drag performance  “uninhibited and uncensored,” despite the shows not featuring any nudity.

“While this event continues to result in divisive and emotional community reactions, the ultimate concern is how to protect our community’s children from exposure to obscene and lewd performances, and adult imagery,” Hazel wrote. “While adults can choose to freely participate or view such lewd and lascivious behaviors, our inherent duty is protecting children from exploitation and the robbing of their innocence, whether mental or physical, and is a matter of utmost importance.”

Hazel’s evidence for the “lewd and lascivious behaviors” was a video published online in 2022 that showed “adults and children” alike” handing dollar bills to performers. He erroneously compares the act to “‘tucking’ bills at an adult strip/dance club.”

While Hazel did not provide the video he’s referencing, it is most likely a video Shawn Meyer, pastor of Aletheia Christian Church, shared in 2023 with a Facebook group called “Defend Celina” that shows clips from a 2022 drag show in Celina. The children in the video hand the bills to performers. The video does not show children tucking dollar bills into performers’ clothing.

Hazel also referenced a 2023 video where he said a drag performer, “twerked, thrust his hips, and gyrated on the ground where he revealed a tight-fitting thong.” A similar performance was in the 2022 video, and each of the moves Hazel describes appear for a second or less as part of a longer dance routine. Some of the moves used by the performer — such as high kicks, flips and using their leg to gain momentum and stand back up — are used by cheerleading squads, including Celina High School. During a Celina cheer team’s showcase on February 20, 2025, high school athletes “thrust their hips,” spread their legs and use almost the same moves as the drag performer during a cheer showcase.

The council president Jason King’s sister-in-law, Rep. Angie King, stood next to neo-Nazis protesting against the Pride celebration that year, noted Small Town Pride President Kyle Bruce in a statement sent to The Buckeye Flame.

“Let this be a reminder that those who are in support of HB 249 have opposed our Pride event since before there was a drag show in 2020, and have continued to oppose it this year when there was no drag show,” Bruce said. “These people are attempting to mask their blatant homophobia and transphobia by presenting their side as the ones who are protecting the children, yet they are the ones who fill their kids with hate towards a group who does them no harm.”

Bruce highlighted vendors who spread awareness on community health issues such as mental health, substance abuse and domestic violence, alongside handicrafts and live music.

“Every year, we spend a day surrounded by the most kind-hearted, loving people that we know,” he said. “Small Town Pride’s annual event draws a crowd of hundreds every year, demonstrating that the views of Jason King, Angie King, Jeff Hazel and Shawn Meyer are not the views of the entire population.”

Back in Greenville, Hollopeter and Stewart have planned a protest at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 15 outside Greenville City Hall. They believe not enough people are aware how HB 249 could potentially affect transgender people presenting differently than their assigned gender at birth in public.

They want to bring attention to the bill, but they also want to speak towards the partisan divide in Greenville to shift focus away from the culture war towards the “real dividers,” Stewart said.

“The strategy we’re going for right now is cross-dressing and holding signs that say, ‘Hey, we want affordable housing, affordable groceries, childcare,’” and all that,” he said. “We actually agree on all these economic issues.”

Attendees are encouraged to bring non-perishable food to help support the Center’s food pantry, Hollopeter said.

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IGNITE ACTION

• To learn more about the protest at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 15 outside Greenville City Hall, click here.
• To learn more about the LGBTQ+ Community Center of Darke County, click here.
• To learn more about Hamilton Pride, click here.
• To learn more about Small Town Pride – Celina, click here.
• The Buckeye Flame’s Ohio LGBTQ+ legislation guide for 2025 can be found here.
• To register to vote or to check your voter eligibility status in the state of Ohio, click here.
• To find contact information for your Ohio state representative, click here.
• To find contact information for your Ohio state senator, click here.
• If you are a young LGBTQ+ person in crisis, please contact the Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor.
• If you are an transgender adult in crisis, please contact the National Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860

The post Elected officials in rural Ohio submit testimony in favor of state’s ‘drag ban,’ spurring response and a protest appeared first on The Buckeye Flame.

Lima, Ohio, the city that was the fictionalized setting for the television show “Glee,” is now the real-life home of a new LGBTQ+ organization.

Earlier this year, Aimee Bucher and her friend, Jeff Givan, founded the Lima Pride Alliance. Bucher grew up in the city of 35,000, which is located in western Ohio roughly between Toledo and Dayton. She went to high school there in the 1980s, where she met her future girlfriend. Back then, it was tough being LGBTQ+ in Lima, and to some extent still is today. .

“You can walk down the street and maybe we’ll hold hands, maybe we won’t, depending on what we see out on the street,” Bucher said.

Bucher and Givan started talking last June about starting an organization. In July, the Democratic Party of Allen County hosted a Pride Picnic that brought out 100 attendees. The pair took people’s names and emails to talk and build an email list.

“There’s an obvious desire for community here,” Bucher recalled thinking. “We have some momentum, let’s build on that.”

Lima does not have a deep LGBTQ+ history, but Bucher said a gay bar called “Somewhere in Time” dated back to at least the 1970s. It closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and reopened under the name “Club Octane” with different owners as a queer nightclub.

Though Lima Pride Alliance is not yet a nonprofit, the group held a fall-themed event in October, which Bucher said brought an intergenerational crowd.. The group is aiming for one event per quarter, with a Pride event next summer.

Bucher is expecting blowback from anti-LGBTQ+ residents to happen eventually. The community theatre has to be careful what shows they play.

“They’re very conservative with what play they will put on because they know that they will destroy their audience base [if] they do anything that’s too progressive,” she said. “We did a show where someone said, ‘God damn it,’ and we had people walk out because they had taken the Lord’s name in vain.”

When Bucher went to a Pride parade in 2023,  she said there were counterprotestors to 25 marchers on a single street.

“We had like four following us, yelling Bible verses the whole time,” she said.

Before Pride next July, Bucher expects the organization to have its legal structure in order. The intent is to be a nonpartisan, rainbow beacon for Lima and Allen County’s LGBTQ+ population when the lack of visibility can feel “very isolating.”

“ I talk a lot about community because that’s the key,” she said. “ We have these events [where]people come together like, ‘Oh, I have people, I have this community.’ It’s exciting to be part of that – letting people know they’re not alone.”

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IGNITE ACTION

• To learn more about Lima Pride Alliance, click here for its Facebook page.

The post A new LGBTQ+ organization forms in rural Ohio town known as the setting of ‘Glee’ appeared first on The Buckeye Flame.

ATHENS COUNTY, Ohio — Athens County Treasurer Taylor Sappington announced Oct. 6 that he decided not to renew the county’s investment in Israel foreign government bonds, which was due on Oct. 1. At the same time, Sappington also decided not to renew $1 million in domestic government debt maturity.

The domestic government debt was a “.45% Freddie Mac Federal Home Loan agency instrument,” Sappington told the Independent. 

Israel foreign government bonds are investments in the state of Israel’s treasury, which earn interest for the investors; such investments in Israel have raised objections from the Palestine solidarity movement, with activists concerned in part about the bonds’ support for the Israeli military. 

In a press release, Palestine solidarity organizations Jewish Voice for Peace, SE Ohio; Students for Justice in Palestine; and Ohio University Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine praised Sappington’s decision on Israel government bonds.

“It’s great to see county treasurers across the state, including Taylor Sappington, making the morally and fiscally responsible choice of investing closer to home,” OU student and Students for Justice in Palestine member Eden Truax said in the press release. 

Sappington told the Independent the choice not to renew the Israel bonds was purely apolitical.

“It has to be about what works for the community and what the mission is of basically my investment strategy,” Sappington told the Independent.

Sappington reinforced the apolitical nature of his decision in an email he sent to the Athens County Commissioners, which was shared with the Independent by representatives of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine.

“It is important that I communicate to you directly that the decision was made without political considerations and focused solely on the yield offered to the taxpayer dollars we manage, the liquidity concerns of foreign government bonds (which are locked and cannot be redeemed for any reason), and the negative outlook/downgrade of the investment at hand,” Sappington wrote.

Athens County Commission Charlie Adkins told the Independent, “Based upon [Sappington’s’] presentation, it sounds like it was pretty risky, and I’m not one to put taxpayers money in something that is as risky as he thinks that is.”

Sappington said the process of determining not to renew the investment was shaped by conversations with local residents on both sides of the issue.

“I’m an elected official who’s been on the ballot in the county a number of times, and folks understood who I was and knew how to get a hold of me – and so I more than once had either interested individuals in the topic … reach out and express not just really strong feelings on the subject matter, but in some cases, asked for a chance to sit down and really talk to one of their representatives and and politicians, and just talk over the subject,” Sappington said.

Emails the Independent obtained through public records included one from the Development Corporation for Israel encouraging reinvestment in Israel bonds, as well as four from Athens County residents either encouraging Sappington not to reinvest in the bonds or praising his decision not to.

“I was really impressed with some of these folks’ knowledge in the finances of not just counties in Ohio, but the Israeli government, the rating agencies, the trends nationwide and how government entities were handling this type of investment in this moment,” Sappington added. “I saw it as not just an opportune moment to be close and do my job with my constituents, but also just a chance to learn.”

Sappington said his experience learning about the issue was “democracy in action.”

Several other counties in Ohio have decided not to renew investments in Israel bonds, according to the Ohio Divestment Coalition’s website. The Ohio Divestment Coalition is organizing to encourage divestment across Ohio counties because, “Investing in Israel Bonds directly funds a government under active international investigation, and which has been found guilty of committing genocide,” according to the coalition’s website.

“We have a long road ahead to redirect state treasury investments out of Israel bonds, but these county divestments are a great start to move the state toward investing in our communities,” Truax said in activists’ press release.

In a text message after his interview with the Independent, Sappington noted that he spent a summer in Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan in 2013, calling it “an important moment in my personal and professional growth.”

“I know with some personal experience the difficulty and pain so many folks that I met there expressed to me,” Sappington said in the text message. “All the more reason it’s important that Athens County trusts that my decisions are transparently based on the facts impacting their money they worked so hard to earn.”

Athens County still has $700,000 invested in Israel bonds, of which $200,000 will expire in 2027. The remainder matures in 2028, Sappington told the Independent.

Sappington said in his email to the commissioners that he is working to reinvest recently matured investments in Israel foreign government bonds and domestic government debt “as close to home as possible.”

Regarding the $1 million matured domestic investment, Sappington said that the funds were automatically returned to the county. He reinvested “$720,000 of those funds into a Federal Treasury at 3.375%, a much more attractive rate” than what the county had been getting, Sappington told the Independent in an email.

“The rest of the funds are being combined with the Foreign Government Bond for diversification somewhere closer to home if possible,” he added.

Currently, the funds awaiting reinvestment are sitting in a money market account, earning a “pretty competitive” 3.98% interest rate. Sappington said he does not want to leave the funds there, however, because “we are in a declining rate moment with the Fed and money markets are susceptible to rate changes.”

“It will serve the county to reach for as many medium-long term investments as is reasonable so that the interest rates earned are locked in before they drop further,” Sappington said in his email. “Of course, nobody can tell the future and the best thing we can do is diversify and protect these funds in a range of safe, strong buckets that earn a pretty return, no matter the external factors.”

Sappington said he hopes to reinvest money “locally in our bank, so that they could turn that money around into Athens County,” Sappington said. 

He noted in his email to the commissioners, and conversation with the Independent, that he is looking at additional ways to redirect the county’s investments locally, beyond the bonds that recently matured. 

Sappington said the decision to invest locally is not necessarily a personal value judgement or political decision, but rather a way to ensure Athens County’s investments support the community financially.

The post Athens County Treasurer declines to renew $300,000 in Israeli bonds appeared first on Athens County Independent.

A third grade math and science teacher in the village of New Richmond, Ohio, who was suspended last year for having books that include LGBTQ+ characters in her classroom lost her case against the school district in U.S. district court on September 29.

Karen Cahall was suspended for three days without pay in November 2024 for having the books such as “Ana on the Edge,” “The Fabulous Zed Watson,” “Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea” and “Too Bright to See” in her classroom reading bins. 

A parent alerted the superintendent about the books in an email. The district then alleged that Cahall violated its “controversial issues” policy by making the books available to students.

Cahall, who has taught in the small Southwest Ohio village for over 30 years, filed a lawsuit against the district challenging her suspension. 

In his September decision, U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Cole dismissed the complaint. He argued that Cahall must have known the books were controversial because they were placed in the bins after teachers were banned from displaying LGBTQ+ flags, stickers and pins. 

“There is no question that, on the facts here, Cahall knew that the LGBTQ+-themed books that she placed in the classroom related to a ‘controversial issue,’” Cole writes. “Indeed, in her Complaint, she specifically notes that she added the books to her collection because of a ‘controversy’ surrounding LGBTQ+ topics, and she did so precisely because she thought that controversy damaging to the emotional health of LGBTQ+ students in her third-grade class.”

Cahall previously told The Buckeye Flame that she has a “deeply held belief” that “all children deserve the same level of love and respect.”

Cahall and her lawyer are currently exploring ways to move forward. 

“I don’t know what form that will take, if it will ultimately become an appeal,” she said. “I’m not ready to give up.”

What is a “controversial issue”?

New Richmond Exempted Village School District’s policy on controversial issues does not shed more light on the district’s concerns because the guidelines use vague language.

The district’s definition still does not provide examples or a clear definition of “controversy,” only noting that “opposing points of view” were proclaimed “by responsible opinion,” or “likely to arouse both support and opposition in the community.” The definition does not make clear what constitutes “responsible opinion,” or whether any issue with opposing viewpoints in itself is controversial even if one side is overwhelmingly supported over the other.

Cahall’s lawyer, Mark Herron, argued that two people can disagree on anything, and the policy needs to be specific in notifying what subjects are too controversial. The specificity would eliminate bias and prejudice in the decision making, which he said the current policy does not do.

In the district’s administrative guidelines, any books not pre-approved by the district must be reviewed by a school’s principal to determine whether they would “create controversy among students, parents, and community groups.” The Board must first determine whether the material is related to the course, students are mature enough for the material, and it does not “indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view” before allowing it in the classroom.

But the controversial material could also be allowed if said material “encourages open-mindedness and is conducted in a spirit of scholarly inquiry.” It is unclear why any of Cahall’s books do not meet that definition.

Cahall’s complaint noted that the books in question were intermingled in a bin with 100 other books, were not prominently displayed, were not required reading and were not part of any of Cahall’s instructional plans. Further, none of the books describe any sexual conduct or sexual activity.

Elsewhere in the school, Herron said the district’s library had a collection of the Captain Underpants books – including a book in the series in which a character comes out as gay.

“Those books are featuring a gay character – is it controversial, or is it acceptable for it to have a book with a gay character?” he said. “The judge rejected that.”

Cahall said the suspension violated her religious freedom under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, and the “controversial issues” policy was too vague.

14th Amendment

Cahall stated the district treated her differently than other teachers, who were able to wear religious jewelry and promote religious events over email. 

The judge did not think the comparison worked.

 “If she had alleged … that the District knowingly allows teachers to make Bibles available to their students, … while preventing her from making other religiously motivated content available to her students, things may be different, but that is not what her Complaint alleges,” Cole wrote.

The judge dismissed Cahall’s complaint in regards to her Equal Protection claim and religious Free Exercise claim without prejudice, which means she could refile a complaint again on those same grounds. He dismissed the vague policy claim with prejudice, but Cahall could decide to appeal the ruling.

The New Richmond district’s new superintendent did not respond to requests for comment. 

The future for Cahall

News of the verdict was “extremely [disappointing]” for Cahall and her lawyer. Though they believe there is room for an appeal, they have until the end of October to make a decision.

For nearly a year, Cahall has still been teaching in the district while suing her employer. The experience has been “rough,” but she has seen an outpouring of support from her co-workers and the New Richmond community. Support has been both verbal and fiscal as over 400 people have donated to her GoFundMe to support her legal fight, reaching over $18,000.

“If it weren’t for [the fundraiser], I would’ve just had to hold up my hands and wave the flag of surrender,” Cahall said.

The fundraiser sparked an idea of a teachers’ legal fund, so other educators can afford to bring complaints like hers to court, she said.

“The good thing is when I’m in my classroom and I’m teaching, that really is my happy place,” Cahall said. “That’s where I’m meant to be.”

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IGNITE ACTION

• To learn more about GLSEN’s Rainbow Library program, click here.
• To access Kaleidoscope Youth Center’s list of GSA groups across Ohio, click here.

The post Ohio teacher who was suspended for having LGBTQ+ books in her classroom loses her court case appeared first on The Buckeye Flame.

In Lancaster, a small city surrounded by farmland in central Ohio, finding safe, affirming spaces for LGBTQ+ people can be a challenge. But theater group Rise Up Arts Alliance has become a haven.

“Especially here in Fairfield County, it can be difficult to find queer space,” says Judith Kerr-Cosgray, Rise Up’s founder and executive director. “We’ve been told this summer from several individuals that we are the first organization where they’ve been able to be themselves. We absolutely make it a safe space for everyone.”

Founded in 2019, Rise Up grew out of Kerr-Cosgray’s frustration when her daughter was turned away from a local theater production for lacking stage experience.

“How can you get any stage experience when you’re 9?” she remembers thinking. “I’m going to do something where everyone gets a chance and we don’t discriminate or leave anyone out. Everyone is welcome.”

What is Rise Up Arts Alliance?

Rise Up has positioned itself as a community-first theater from the beginning, emphasizing learning as much as performance. The organization stages about 10 productions a year, including age-specific shows (K–4, 5–8, 5–12) and “mixed cast” productions combining teens and adults. 

Casting is gender-blind, based on fit rather than identity, and show choices are determined collaboratively through actor polls. Recently, Rise Up has put on the high school version of Sweeney Todd and the Hunchback of Notre Dame, priding themselves in choosing shows that tackle hard topics and that local schools often won’t do.

Rise Up’s programming has steadily expanded from Zoom rehearsals during the pandemic to now putting on performances on the stage of an old school building. Currently, they are in the midst of their first capital campaign to build a permanent space. In addition to theater, Rise Up hosts a photography club and a writer’s circle, offering multiple entry points for artistic expression.

That spirit of inclusion extends to its work with The Penguin Project Foundation, a theater program for children with disabilities. In 2023, Rise Up became the first Ohio organization to partner with the Penguin Project by creating programming to specifically support children with disabilities.

This fall, Rise Up will launch Penguin Players, giving adults with disabilities similar opportunities. “We know that a lot of individuals, especially those that are autistic, fall on the LGBTQ+ spectrum as well,” Kerr-Cosgray said. “So, this is another way we are able to support them.”

Commitment to safety and community

Rise Up’s commitment to safety, belonging and self-expression runs through all its programming.

“The mental health benefits of theater are huge. It gives you a network of individuals and allows you to express yourself  and, if you need to, you can step into someone else’s character to say what you need to say,” Kerr-Cosgray explains. “Especially right now, that is so important. We’re getting bombarded from every angle with negative everything. Everyone just needs a place to be able to let that go and use the arts as a way to work through their emotions.”

That philosophy is deeply intergenerational. Rise Up pairs youth and adults in mentorship roles, ensuring young people have trusted guides to boost self-esteem.

“We believe a lot in mentorship,” Kerr-Cosgray says. “If someone is having difficulties or we know they just need extra support in anything that they’re doing, we pair them up with someone. Having that mentor, especially for some of our students that are questioning, makes a huge difference in how they perform.”

The results are transformative.

Kerr-Cosgray recalls students who arrive timid, afraid to show their true selves, but find courage in rehearsal. 

“We’ve had students who, when rehearsal starts, they change their clothes and we refer to them [by] their preferred name, and before it’s over, they change back and then go home,” says Kerr-Cosgray. “We just really support them in whatever way we can.”

‘A space that is safe for everyone’

In Lancaster, that support can carry risks. Rise Up has faced backlash for its visibility.

“Last year, a [local] organization targeted anyone that was listed by the [local] Rainbow Alliance as a ‘safe space.’ They put us on a boycott list,” Kerr-Cosgray recalls. “It was a good six months of being harassed, messages, being followed, people taking pictures of our cars…it was kind of ugly.”

Through it all, Rise Up continues its work. “It’s just really a difficult situation when someone decides to boycott your organization when all you’re trying to do is promote acceptance of all,” she says.

For Kerr-Cosgray, Rise Up’s mission  is about showing what’s possible when communities affirm each other’s voices: whether queer, disabled, young, or old. Even in rural areas with scarce resources, safe stages can be built.

“If we’re going to continue, we need to have a space that is safe for everyone, including the LGBTQ+ community,” Kerr-Cosgray emphasizes. “We [must] work on ways of funding. That’s what people need to know. They need to support organizations that are doing the hard work because it doesn’t come free.”

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ignite action

• To learn more about Rise Up Arts Alliance, click here.
• If you are a young LGBTQ+ person in crisis, please contact the Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor.
• If you are an transgender adult in crisis, please contact the National Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860

The post A Stage for Everyone: Rise Up Arts Alliance builds safe space in rural Ohio appeared first on The Buckeye Flame.

TROY, Ohio — For almost as long as she’s been a mother, Sara Laughlin has known where she could turn for help in this western Ohio town 20 miles north of Dayton. 

For years, the local Head Start program provided stability and care for her oldest son, and it now does the same for her two younger children, twin boys. Head Start was there for Laughlin and her family through tough transitions, including the end of a long relationship. She credits the free federally funded program, housed in a blue building on the edge of this manufacturing hub of 27,000, for allowing her to keep her job as a massage therapist while raising three kids.

“If we had to pay for child care, I would not be able to work,” Laughlin said. “There’s no way I could do it.”

So, Laughlin said, she was “dumbfounded” when she heard this spring that Head Start was targeted for elimination in an early draft of President Donald Trump’s budget proposal. In small towns and rural areas throughout the country, voters like her were key to both of Trump’s election victories. Laughlin was particularly attracted to his campaign promise to eliminate taxes on tips, which she relies on. She couldn’t conceive why cuts to early childhood programs would be on the table.

“Out of all the things in this country that we could get rid of, why do you want to attack our children’s learning?” she said.

Laughlin’s experience shows what’s at stake in towns and rural areas up and down the western side of Ohio — and across the country. In many of these communities, Head Start, which combines early childhood education, health, nutrition, and other family services, is the only game in town for child care, allowing thousands of parents to work. It’s often the only early childhood program where educators can make a decent wage in a chronically underpaid industry. And it’s a key source of connection and support for parents dealing with trauma, job loss, poverty and parenting challenges.

Head Start is often viewed as a program that caters primarily to urban areas. The numbers, however, tell a different story. Nearly 90 percent of rural counties in the United States have Head Start programs, which are funded with federal dollars and run by public or private agencies including schools and nonprofits. Almost half of the 716,000 children Head Start serves live in rural congressional districts, compared to just 22 percent in urban districts. 

“These are communities that are underinvested in by philanthropy or the states where they are,” said Katie Hamm, who during the Biden administration served as deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development at the federal Administration for Children and Families, which oversees Head Start.

In many rural communities, moreover, the program is not just about education and child care. Head Start is particularly crucial to the survival of these local areas in a way it isn’t in larger urban areas with more diverse economies. The program not only employs local residents, it supports other local businesses as centers pay rent, buy food from local farmers and grocers, use local mechanics to repair buses, hire local technicians to service kitchens and pay local carpenters to outfit centers.

Head Start was created in 1965 to provide early learning, family support and health services to low-income families, part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. The program has long enjoyed bipartisan support: 74 percent of Trump voters and 86 percent of Democrats said earlier this year that they support funding the program, according to a survey conducted on behalf of the advocacy group First Five Years Fund. 

Related: Young children have unique needs, and providing the right care can be a challenge. Our free early childhood education newsletter tracks the issues. 

Although Head Start has survived elimination so far this year, its local centers are still trying to recover from what many say feels like death by a thousand federal cuts since Trump took office — with more likely to come.

It started last year, when conservatives with ties to the president published Project 2025, a governing blueprint that called for Head Start’s elimination, among dozens of other spending reductions. 

In early February, many Head Start programs were caught up in a federal funding freeze. Then, the Trump administration fired about 20 percent of the program’s federal staff. 

This spring, some rural programs shut down because the administration delayed Head Start payments in some regions. In April, the administration abruptly closed five regional Head Start offices, cutting off a main source for support for programs. Just three months after that, the administration announced that undocumented immigrant children, long eligible for Head Start, could no longer participate.

In the midst of all that turmoil, some local and regional Head Start programs have begun laying off employees. At the start of the year, the government withheld nearly $1 billion in funding from local programs, a move that the Government Accountability Office called illegal in July. While the money has since been distributed, in the interim several Head Start programs closed temporarily, and a few have told some staff they will be let go.

After all that, Head Start leaders in rural communities said, their futures feel more tenuous than ever. While urban Head Start programs are more likely to be supported by large, well-resourced organizations that receive donations from individuals and local philanthropies, those additional funding streams are often absent in rural communities.

The resulting “uncertainty and constant whiplash” is taking a toll on Head Start providers across America, said Hanah Goldberg, director of research and policy at the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, a nonprofit that promotes quality early education in that state. “They need to be focusing on supporting kids and families, not putting out a new fire every day.”  

Advocates say Head Start’s model of wraparound support is especially needed in remote parts of America. Rural children under 5 have the highest poverty rate in the country. Rates of food insecurity and unemployment are higher in rural areas than in urban ones. Child care deserts — areas with a dearth of care options — are most common in low-income rural communities.  

In Greenville, Ohio, a town of about 12,700 that hugs the Indiana border 40 miles northwest of Dayton, the median household income is just under $47,000. The local Head Start program is one of just two licensed child care centers available in town for nearly 600 children under the age of 5 who live in Greenville. Run by the Ohio-based nonprofit Council on Rural Services, it serves children whose parents work in nearby retail stores, fast food chains or factories, as well as a growing number of grandparents raising their grandchildren.

Related: As federal dollars for Head Start slow, rural parents left without other options

Teachers there describe their work as far more than providing child care. 

On any given day, in addition to teaching a group of preschoolers, Greenville Head Start teacher Sasha Fair may find herself lending an ear to parents who need to vent and helping caregivers track progress toward personal educational, parenting or employment goals. In her center, like many others in the region, Head Start workers pool their money to buy birthday presents for children who would otherwise go without. They track down car seats for parents who can’t afford them. And they go door-to-door to local dentists trying to convince them to accept children who use Medicaid.

“It’s about connection and community,” Fair said.

Fair was terrified for the families she serves when she heard Head Start was on the chopping block. It’s even more worrisome, she said, considering that broader federal and state cuts are being made to other social supports like health care and food assistance that Head Start families rely on. Educators and parents here have already seen federal budget cuts affect area food pantries and farms. Some locals like Fair say they fear cuts that could hit closer to home and affect Head Start more directly.

“These are our future,” she said, gesturing at the preschoolers playing in her classroom. “We need to give them the strongest, best possible start, and that includes their health care, their access to care, their education.”

Many residents would also be out of jobs if Head Start programs were to close. Nationally, nearly a quarter of the program’s teachers are parents with children currently or formerly in the program. In Ohio, Head Start is among the state’s 50 largest employers, providing work for more than 8,000 Ohioans and, by extension, additional area residents who rely on Head Start spending. 

“We try to stay local and utilize whoever is local,” said Stacey Foster, who leads a Head Start program in Urbana, a town of about 11,000 that is 40 miles northeast of Dayton and surrounded by picturesque fields and farmhouses. On a summer afternoon, while workers from a local family-owned carpet company installed new flooring in Foster’s center, students from a nearby career technology center’s early childhood program cycled through her office, interviewing for part-time positions.

Foster’s Head Start rents space for its five classrooms and two playgrounds from a local organization that works with adults with disabilities, helping to support those services.

The program’s fleet of buses is serviced by Jeff’s Automotive Service, a local garage. Katy Leib, service manager at Jeff’s Automotive, said demand for work rises and falls, especially this year with some people spending cautiously because of economic uncertainty. Being able to rely on Head Start as one of its larger, more consistent accounts has been helpful for the business’s stability, she said.  

If Head Start were to lose its funding, it would affect Jeff’s Automotive, as well as other companies that contract with Jeff’s. “When we’re working on their vehicles, we’re also purchasing parts from local businesses. It’s affecting tire companies and our oil companies,” Leib said. ”It’s a domino effect.” 

Heather Littrell is an example of a parent who found support, and eventually employment, through Head Start.

Littrell, who lives in Troy, was standing in line to apply for housing assistance when she spotted an ad for free preschool. At the time, she was 19 and struggling to keep a job while raising her two young children. Family members helped when they could, but without consistent child care, Littrell was forced to leave job after job at local factories and a gas station.

“Everything was unstable,” she said. “I wasn’t really knowing what direction I was going to take.” 

Related: In 2024, Head Start programs are still funded by a formula set in the 1970s

Littrell ended up enrolling her girls in Head Start, where they learned their colors, numbers and social skills, while Littrell received parenting advice, diapers and meals for her daughters. Most importantly, she could work. A few years later, inspired by her experience as a Head Start parent, Littrell decided to pursue a degree in early childhood education.

Now, 17 years later, she has moved from being a Head Start student teacher to serving as a coordinator for mental health and disability services in Head Start programs across western Ohio. 

“If I hadn’t seen that flyer that day, I wouldn’t be standing here now,” she said. “I really did use Head Start to help me become a better person and a better member of society.”

Trump’s latest budget proposal would not change the amount of money set aside for Head Start, but given inflation, keeping the program’s budget unchanged effectively amounts to a cut. And program officials say that years of inadequate funding has already compromised the program’s reach and stability. Lawmakers have until the end of September to settle on a federal budget. If the current budget doesn’t grow, federal estimates predict, Head Start will lose nearly 22,000 slots and more than 2,000 teachers across both urban and rural regions over the next year. 

Laurie Todd-Smith, appointed by the Trump administration in June to oversee federal early childhood programs at the Administration for Children and Families, including Head Start, acknowledged that the programs play an important role in rural areas. “If Head Start wasn’t in rural areas where those most impoverished families are, we’d have very different outcomes for children,” she said. 

But Todd-Smith isn’t convinced that the program needs more money. Rather, she said, programs should look for ways to be more efficient. In some places, state-funded offices already provide health services, employment assistance and mental health assistance. She said Head Start programs could tap into those services instead of offering their own.

“There might be some cost savings if we actually link state systems to some of the work of Head Start, instead of creating duplication of services,” Todd-Smith said.

At the local level, however, Head Start providers say that if they’re going to raise salaries, keep teachers and serve more children — there aren’t currently enough seats for all who qualify — they need more money. 

Officials from the Council on Rural Services, which runs 17 Head Start sites scattered across western Ohio, said communication from higher-ups has been virtually nonexistent since a regional office in Chicago closed in April. Earlier this spring, money for CORS sites’ payroll was delayed. Staffers called state Head Start officials, who frantically reached out to federal counterparts. The money showed up just in time for CORS to send out paychecks, but it was a reminder of how precarious the system is. “We are one payroll away from shutting the doors at any time,” said Karin Somers, chief executive officer at CORS.

Related: A little-known program could be a model for how to spend billions in federal money on child care 

Even under friendlier administrations, Head Start’s finances have been shaky. For example, the program still distributes money to centers based on a formula developed in the 1970s, even as populations and community poverty rates have changed. The outdated system has led to wildly inequitable results: For example, the percentage of children in poverty who are served in Head Start ranges from 7.7 percent in Nevada to 50 percent in Alaska. 

More recently, the Biden administration decided that all Head Start teachers should get raises by 2031. It didn’t supply more money for those raises, however, leading some programs to reduce how many kids they serve in order to afford the wage increases. CORS boosted teacher pay by more than $5 an hour in 2023, but had to cut 310 student slots to do so.

Head Start staffers say many parents in rural Ohio had no idea that Head Start was a federal program until funding was threatened in the spring. CORS officials sent emails to enrolled families explaining the funding situation and encouraging parents to advocate for the program.

“Typically, community members at large don’t understand” the funding source, said CORS CEO Somers. Some assume Head Start is paid for with state education money, she said, and others think the state foots the bill. “The system itself is hard to track.”

The federal money pays for more than just brick-and-mortar Head Starts and their staff. It also covers the cost of a traveling home-based education program that brings one-on-one support to parents in areas too small for a center-based program.

In the town of Paris, about 40 miles southeast of Akron and home to fewer than 1,900 people, mom Kirsten Mayfield welcomes weekly visits from CORS’ Gabrielle Alig, who drives many miles through the Ohio countryside each week to visit 11 families. During those visits, Alig serves as both an educator and counselor, providing lessons and games for children while talking to parents about their own needs and concerns.

Mayfield wants to find a play therapist to help her 5-year-old son with behavioral challenges, but that would involve a drive to a medical center more than 90 minutes away. In the meantime, Alig is working with the boy on skills like following directions, while also giving Mayfield parenting tips and connections to community resources. 

Littrell, the former Head Start parent who now works for the program, hopes residents will realize programs like Head Start are critical for communities like hers and vote for politicians who will try to protect them. From her early years as a teen mom, she said, she knows how easy it is to end up in a situation where a family needs some help to move forward. “We had food stamps, we had [subsidized] housing, we used Head Start,” Littrell said. “We used them to help us build a life where we didn’t depend on those social services. 

“But they were there for us when we needed them.”

Contact staff writer Jackie Mader at 212-678-3562 or mader@hechingerreport.org. 

This story about rural Ohio was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

The post Rural Americans rely on Head Start. Federal turmoil has them worried appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

The slim, long-legged bobcat rested quietly in her leafy enclosure at the Ohio Wildlife Center, in rural Powell, Ohio. Occasionally she yawned, groomed her paws or walked along a thick branch suspended between constructed sleeping platforms.

Nearly two centuries ago, she and her kind were becoming barely a memory. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, bobcats (Lynx rufus) historically roamed throughout Ohio and North America, yet by around 1850 the bobcat had been extirpated from the state—that is, hunted to extinction locally.

Today, the species is on its way to becoming a quiet success story.

Speaking in early August to a sold-out crowd in a renovated barn at the wildlife center, conservation biologist Shauna Weyrauch said the bobcat population in Ohio is estimated at several hundred, as they slowly return from surrounding states. Nationally, the bobcat population is around one million, according to the National Park Service.

With dark spots on rust-colored fur, bobcats average about 16 pounds for a female and 22 pounds for a male, about twice the size of most housecats. They derive their name from a naturally short or “bobbed” tail that is about 5 inches long.  

Loners built for speed, bobcats are one of six wild cat species in the United States. The bobcat and the similar Canada lynx, found in Canada and near the Canadian border in northern U.S. states, have increasingly secure populations. Three other species—jaguar, jaguarandi and ocelot—have dwindling populations and a precarious future. The mountain lion, or cougar, presents a mixed picture—expanding across the Midwest but threatened by habitat loss in California and the Southwest.

Weyrauch, a senior lecturer at Ohio State University (OSU), told the Ohio Wildlife Center audience about her research on bobcats and the motion-activated outdoor cameras, or trailcams, she uses to observe them. She straps some cameras to trees and inserts others via PVC pipes into underground doghouse-sized dens she has created in her study area, the university’s 227-acre eastern-Ohio forest laboratory. This has resulted in a million photos and videos since 2022.

What Weyrauch calls “armies” of OSU undergraduates have organized the images, some of which were projected onto a screen above her head as she spoke. Ph.D. student Xinzhu Zhang is analyzing them; her results will define the types of territory bobcats like best—with forest cover and proximity to streams, for example.

OSU’s forest laboratory has sufficient prey for bobcats, including their favorites—raccoons, rabbits, mice and other small mammals. The area is not an old-growth forest, though, which would have lots of big fallen trees and the hollow logs that bobcats favor as places to birth and raise their kittens. In making the dens, says Weyrauch, “I wanted to do something tangible that could promote the recovery of bobcats.”

In addition to bobcats, numerous species check out Weyrauch’s dens as potential living space—though no animal of any species has yet moved in. Trailcam images show weasels, foxes, groundhogs and others peeking into or exploring the burrows via their drainpipe entrances. A raccoon got a big laugh from Weyrauch’s audience when he did a pull-up on a den’s central ceiling beam and used it to scratch the top of his head vigorously—then came back another day to do it again. A bobcat stopped by with her kitten and, as if to say “Dibs on this den!” peed on its entrance, marking it with her scent.

Weyrauch hopes that as the dens continue to “age into place” they’ll be occupied. Going forward, she will try another design: 6-foot-long, 18-inch-diameter culverts cut in half horizontally and set on the ground with the open side down.

After the lecture, Weyrauch signed copies of her newly released children’s book, The Boy and the Bobcat (Mascot Kids, 2025). Written with wildlife photographer Dutch Gordon and illustrated by Rachel Novel, the book tells the story of a child who dreams he’s become a bobcat. In his nighttime fantasy, he interacts with other forest animals and learns about values they embody, like respect and tolerance. By teaching children these principles in a wildlife context, the book encourages protection of both bobcats and the natural world they inhabit.

“When we think about conservation, we always think of the next generation,” Weyrauch says. “How to get them excited and caring. When I see kids get excited about bobcats, it feels really good.” The cats are beautiful and charismatic, she says. “Who wouldn’t want to learn more about bobcats?”

Moreover, Weyrauch says, “They’re native, they evolved here, and they’re part of what makes an Ohio forest an Ohio forest. So it’s great to have them back.”

The bobcats’ return to Ohio will help establish a more diverse, more stable and healthier ecosystem for all its components, humans included, according to Rebecca Rose, the wildlife center’s Conservation Liaison. Commenting on Weyrauch’s lecture, she says, “People want stories that give them hope.”

Second chances

Veterinarians at the Ohio Wildlife Center hospital care for 9,000 rescued animals annually, according to Executive Director Heather Tuttle. Many are then released, while others are transferred to centers looking for just such animals for their displays.

Some, like the center’s resident bobcat Athena must continue to be sheltered there because their injuries were so serious they can no longer survive in the wild. Now one-and-a-half years old, Athena was hit by a car as a kitten. She suffered a traumatic brain injury and ended up with cognitive disorders—just as might a human with a serious head injury, Tuttle says.

“While she can eat and drink and run and play, she has lost all her fear response, all hunting instincts—all her survival instincts,” Tuttle explains. “She will remain with us her whole life.” 

After the lecture, audience members took a short outdoor walk to see Athena, as well as the other animals housed in the center’s large tree- and shrub-filled enclosures. Athena sat back regally on her haunches, head held high, toes together, and watched with dignified interest as the crowd chatted and snapped her photo.

Athena’s neighbors, each in its own enclosure, include Audrey the bald eagle, a representative of another species making a comeback in Ohio and nationally. Audrey must continue to live in the center because she can’t fly; she fell out of the nest as a chick and broke a wing that didn’t heal properly.

In another enclosure, shy, diminutive Casper the coyote is not the snarling aggressor most people expect. Correcting false stereotypes is an important result of the public’s visits to the wildlife center, according to Tuttle. Some animals—flying squirrels, opossums, turtles, hawks and others—have been named “ambassadors” and appear at events at the center. “It helps build the connection between our wild community and our human community,” Tuttle says.

As lovely and charming as you may find the center’s resident animals, Tuttle cautions, you should not be inspired to obtain a wild creature and keep it as a pet. For example, you shouldn’t be fooled by the numerous housecat behaviors that bobcats exhibit—purring, sharpening their claws on scratching posts and enjoying curling up in boxes. When they mature and their territorial defense mechanisms kick in, they may attack you, scratching and biting, believing your home is theirs and you are the intruder, Tuttle says. “They will not be happy. You will not be happy.”

Seeing the nimble, elusive bobcat in the wild is a rare treat, according to scientists who study them. Generally, you’ll glimpse little more than a shadow darting through the forest. While driving through the southern California desert, naturalist, wildlife biologist and former park ranger Kevin Hansen had a surprisingly close encounter with a bobcat after he caught sight of one 75 yards away. He writes about the experience in his important book about the species, Bobcat: Master of Survival (Oxford University Press, 2007).

Hansen stopped his truck and sat very still, watching through binoculars as the bobcat kept its eye on Hansen while zigzagging slowly through the surrounding underbrush and cautiously closing in on him. Suddenly, the big male emerged into the open, sniffed the air, stalked forward, peed on one of the truck’s front tires and trotted off.

“I wasn’t sure if I should be flattered or insulted,” writes Hansen.

Target on their back

Two thousand years ago, the Native residents of the area we now call Ohio esteemed the bobcat. The cats were memorialized in effigy pipes, one of which is in the collection of the Ohio History Connection, a Columbus nonprofit. European incomers who settled the North American continent years later had a very different stance. They believed that slaughtering predators, including bobcats, meant more game animals, such as deer and elk, for them.

We now know the reverse is true—getting rid of carnivores re-shapes their prey populations. After vast numbers of predators had been slaughtered in Ohio, deer and elk initially proliferated. However, these larger herds scarfed down so much foliage that they destroyed their food supply and many later starved to death. At the same time, they destroyed habitat for pollinators and birds. The environmental destruction burgeoned as the massive vegetation loss caused riverbank erosion, diminishing water quality and damaging fish habitat.

During the 1800s, settlers throughout Ohio unknowingly exacerbated the problem when they cleared the state’s forests to establish small family farms. In doing so, they eliminated or fragmented this preferred bobcat habitat, which provides niches for prey animals along with cover for the cats as they stalk their next meal. The Ohio countryside was transformed from 95% forested pre-settlement to just 10% by the early 1900s, according to Weyrauch.

The fur trade was another killer. Settlement of the continent launched what Hansen calls “a coast-to-coast assault on North American furbearers.” The peak harvest was during the 1940s, with 23.7 million animals, including bobcats and dozens of other species, killed in that decade alone, according to Hansen.

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 was a heavy blow for the American bobcat. It was not among the animals listed for protection, so its soft, attractive pelt caught the eye of the fur trade and the fashion industry that it served. As one tracker told Hansen, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, “everyone became a bobcat hunter.”  

Until 1987: That fall, the booming fur market crashed in tandem with the stock market. Within a decade, bobcat populations were rallying, in Ohio and nationally, according to the Ohio Wildlife Center. By the early 2000s, the number of reported bobcat sightings began to increase steadily. “With bobcats returning, it’s like putting a piece of the puzzle back in place, restoring ecological integrity,” says Weyrauch.

As Ohio agriculture gradually centralized into larger farms and small ones were abandoned, the state rebounded from minimal forest cover to the 30% the Ohio Environmental Council estimates it has now. The Ohio Division of Wildlife calls reforestation “the major factor leading to the successful self-repatriation of many forest-dependent species, including the bobcat.”

Additional states, from Vermont to California, describe similar environmental patterns and wildlife revivals. The Harvard Forest Dioramas at Harvard University’s Fisher Museum are models illustrating the trend in New England from colonization to the present day. In numerous states, bobcats are now either fully protected, or partially protected with a limited trapping season.

In 2018, the Ohio Department of Wildlife floated the idea of an Ohio bobcat trapping season, says Weyrauch. Many people objected, she says. “We had so little information about their status. A few years earlier, they had just been taken off the state’s threatened and endangered list.”

In neighboring Indiana, a bobcat trapping season is set to begin in November, with tanned bobcat pelts selling online for hundreds of dollars. Weyrauch wonders what trapping bobcats accomplishes. With minimal overlap of individual bobcat territories, they are highly selective breeders that produce small litters, even just one kitten. “They aren’t going to overpopulate,” she says. “They self-regulate through their territoriality.”

Trouble ahead?

The reforestation and other environmental enhancements that support bobcats and other wildlife in Ohio and nationally face new challenges. Increasing deregulation promises to amplify toxins and other damage. In March, the Environmental Protection Agency released 31 directives it called “historic”—lifting restrictions on power plants, including mercury- and arsenic-emitting coal-fired plants; on greenhouse gases and other dangerous air pollutants; on wastewater discharged while producing oil and gas; on accidents at chemical facilities that use “extremely hazardous materials”; on vehicle emissions; and more.

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture is in the process of rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule on 59 million acres of public land. Weyrauch found that troubling. “Roadkill is the largest cause of mortality of bobcats,” she says.

In eastern Ohio, where she’s doing her research, a male bobcat’s territory averages 16 square miles, while a female’s averages about 6 square miles. In southern Ohio, where smaller prey populations require bobcats to range further for their next meal, male and female territories are about twice that. “You can imagine how many roads these bobcats are crossing every day,” Weyrauch says. “More roads, more crossings, more mortality.”

In The Boy and the Bobcat, Weyrauch and Gordon express a dearly felt hope: “May the bobcats’ tracks never again disappear from our forests or our hearts.”

The post Hunted to Near Extinction, Bobcats Are Edging Their Way Back appeared first on Barn Raiser.