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Christian, Straight, and Our Best Allies

Tony Marconi supported gay rights long before his ex-wife came out as a lesbian...and long before he ran for Ohio State representative. But Bush's 2004 win, plus that year's constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage in Ohio, made Marconi and his wife, Martha Filipic, LGBT rights advocates for life.
An Advocate.com exclusive posted October 29, 2008
Christian, Straight, and Our Best Allies

They met on the campaign trail in 1998.

Tony Marconi was running for Ohio State representative for the second house district, which includes all of the Buckeye State’s Delaware County. Martha Filipic, a journalist by training, was a prospective voter. Things between them just clicked. Wedding bells came in 2000.

Tony had been married before. After 19 years his ex-wife came out as a lesbian. They'd had two kids together. “I felt a sense of relief and a sense of joy for her,” he said as a way of explaining how he and Martha have become two of the staunchest straight allies the LGBT community could ask for.

“I’d been very pro on these issues prior to her coming-out,” said Marconi. “It was just a matter of right and wrong. LGBT rights is the last great civil rights issue facing us.”

When Marconi ran for office, he knew it was an extremely uphill battle, so he took the opportunity to speak out on LGBT issues as part of his platform. He didn’t win. But he did change the way local Democrats viewed the issues. “Someone had to stand up. Now the Democrats acknowledge LGBT issues.”

So much so that at Equality Ohio's Lobby Day for Equality this year, Democratic governor Ted Strickland’s public liaison was met with thunderous applause when he told the crowd that the governor would be signing an executive order banning discrimination against LGBT people in state government.

However, Ohio’s 2004 constitutional amendment, which not only banned same-sex marriage but also  legal relationships that "approximate" marriage (like domestic partnerships), “made us the most repressive state,” said Marconi, who is on Equality Ohio’s board of directors. After living through that year’s exhausting election cycle -- the Bush reelection and the passage of the amendment -- they decided that LGBT issues would be the main focus of their political work. “Knowing who we knew -- all the gays and lesbians in our lives -- this would be what we would put our energy toward.”

Their main focus is the Delaware Gay Straight Christian Alliance.

 

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Keywords:  2008 Election  Barack Obama  marriage 
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