Another Democratic transvestite faces possible disqualification from Ohio race for hiding his 'deadname' from voters

Editor's note: The Mercer County Board of Elections ultimately voted Thursday morning to allow Childrey to stand as the Democratic candidate in Ohio District 84, despite his unlawful omission of his former name.

Another Democratic transvestite pursuing political office has been caught flouting Ohio law. He has, however, found a champion in the state's nominally Republican governor, Mike Dewine.

The Democrat in question, a man originally from from Virginia who changed his name to Arienne Christina Childrey in 2020, seeks to unseat state Rep. Angela King (R) in Ohio District 84. Childrey, an Auglaize County resident, has largely campaigned on his antipathy for King over her House Bill 245, which would ban sexual and obscene cabaret performances such as drag shows in front of children and in locations other than adult cabarets.

Childrey is the founder of a radical transvestite activist group called Northwest Ohio Trans Advocacy. He was previously an assistant manager at Kohl's and a manager at Big Lots.

Much like Jeremy Michael Adams — now Vanessa Joy — in Stark County, Childrey's campaign might be dead in the water, for he too failed to disclose his previous name on his petition paperwork, reported the Associated Press.

Ohio law states that "if any person desiring to become a candidate for public office has had a change of name within five years immediately preceding the filing of his statement of candidacy, both his statement of candidacy and nominating petition must contain, immediately following the person's present name, the person's former names."

While Childrey was initially certified on Dec. 21, Mercer County GOP Chairman Robert Hibner wrote to the local election board, asking the board to reject Childrey's campaign petition on account of its apparent illegitimacy, according to the Mercer County Outlook.

The Mercer County Board of Elections is set to vote Thursday on whether the Democrat's contravention of the law is disqualifying.

The Mercer County Democratic Party passed a resolution objecting "to Republican Chair Bob Hibner's protest of our Democratic Candidate's right to run for office."

The county's Democratic Vice-Chair Don Holtvoigt stated, "Mr. Hibner's protest is nothing but a hateful attempt to further discriminate against a community not meeting the GOP definition of 'normal.' A radical approach to alienate qualified candidates and stifle the will of the voters. There is no acceptable explanation to pursue this challenge when no guidance to candidates has been provided."

Gov. DeWine swooped in to defend the transvestites contravening state law on Tuesday, suggesting the Democrats should not be disqualified on account of their ignorance, reported Cleveland.com.

"We shouldn't be denying ballot access for that reason," said DeWine. "It certainly should be fixed."

Childrey has parroted Joy's ignorance defense, claiming the candidacy guide provided to prospective candidates does not provide explicit instructions concerning the provision of past legal names.

"I would note that the name change provision is not included in the Candidate Guide issued by Secretary of State Frank LaRose's office, nor any of the other paperwork or forms," Childrey noted on his campaign site. "In fact, had I known of this provision and tried to comply - which I certainly would've, my legal name and deadname simply could not have fit in the space provided on the candidacy documents."

Melanie Amato, a spokeswoman for the Ohio secretary of state, stressed the guide "does not include every statute pertaining to candidates — in fact the first paragraph offers that disclaimer and urges candidates to consult with their legal counsel."

Amato added, "The law applies to everyone."

State Rep. Brian Stewart (R) underscored on X, "There's nothing uneven about the application of the law. There's no evidence in these stories that the law has been disregarded for other candidates. If you change your name you have to disclose it. It's been that way for decades."

Past names may be of great interest to potential voters, as they correspond with histories candidates might otherwise want to preclude the public from looking into. For instance, under his previous name, Joy recently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Investigative journalist Andy Ngô highlighted that Joy also failed to mention his side hustle as a pornographer. As recently as November 2023, he was sharing images of himself masturbating to photographs of women to his OnlyFans page under the handle "Vanesstradiol."

Joy reportedly also fathered a child who he indicated in an Oct. 25 social media post had — at on at least one occasion — sat with him while he kept his post-op pelvic wound open with a dilator.

Joy's effort to appeal his disqualification proved unsuccessful last week. He has since threatened to sue Stark County for discrimination.

Senate President Matt Huffman and Ohio Senate GOP spokesman John Fortney indicated that if people are looking for someone to blame, they could start with the Ohio House Democrats' campaign staff," reported the Plain Dealer Cleveland.

"There should be a Democratic House organization that ... [will] say 'Hey, we're going to make sure, we're going to have somebody review your petitions [and] make sure this is all right, and do whatever special things have to be done on any particular day," said Huffman.

State Sen. Kristina Roegner (R) similarly suggested, "It would seem to me that, in these cases, that the Democratic Party failed these candidates."

"You could always have someone else check your work. You can go down to the local board of elections," added Roegner.

Childrey, who may yet remain certified, told the Guardian that "regardless of what happens in this hearing, if they boot me off the ballot, I have every intention to refile."

"And in that next election, on that form, I'll put my current name, I'll put my deadname, I'll put the age I was potty-trained, whatever details they need."

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