Exclusive: “I Need to Be Brave and Show up as I Am.” Ohio Rep. Christine Cockley Publicly Comes Out as Queer

By Ken Schneck

When Christine Cockley was growing up in Mansfield, Ohio, her parents instilled in her the importance of public service.

Whether it was working the polls for an election or canvassing for a change-making candidate, Cockley was raised to believe that you did good not out of the kindness of your heart, but because you were supposed to.

“I grew up thinking that public service wasn’t a career path,” Cockley said. “It’s just the way you live.”

Now, the 29-year-old Columbus resident is eight months into her first term as one of the youngest state representatives in the Ohio legislature, representing District 6 on Columbus’ strongly Democratic west side.

As a member of the minority party, Cockley knows the deck is stacked against her fellow Ohio Democrats in the face of a Republican supermajority pushing through their conservative agenda.

But Cockley is no stranger to the fight. As a Jewish woman with a disability (ADHD), she is used to being outnumbered.

And as someone who identifies as queer – a fact she shared for the first time with the media in this interview – she knows how much fortitude it takes to be your authentic self in the fight.

“I need to be brave and show up as I am,” Cockley said.

It is an authenticity she is now ready for more Ohioans to see.

Community roots

Cockley describes her Mansfield upbringing as “community-oriented.” Although  dramatically different viewpoints could have come between her Democratic family and her mostly conservative neighbors, politics never stood in the way of people helping people.

“You could still go to your neighbor’s house and ask for eggs if you’re making something and you had run out,” she said.

Cockley brought that community-minded spirit to The Ohio State University, where she started as a political science major. When she told an academic advisor how much she enjoyed volunteerism and public service, he suggested a different path.

“He said,’Then why are you not studying public affairs?’ Cockley laughed. “I immediately switched my major.”

After graduation, Cockley spent a few years working in human resources in the private sector (“It was not for me.”) before making the move to public affairs. She worked for four years in development for Moderation Management, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing harm caused by the misuse of alcohol.

She then spent  two years as the executive assistant to the CEO of YWCA Columbus, an organization dedicated to ending racism and empowering women. In that role, Cockley witnessed up close how much providing services can help Ohioans. From afterschool care to housing for women with disabilities to shelters for families, she was hooked on the intersection of social justice and tangible support.

“We’re living in an extreme state where vulnerable populations are continuously being attacked and the YWCA is stepping up to help,” she said. “[That organization] will always have a big part of my heart.”

The decision to serve

Working at the YWCA gave Cockley a clear line of view into how power operated in the state – and how it often wasn’t working to support vulnerable populations.

“One thing after another kept adding up, and finally I was like, ‘Why is our government and our state government operating this way?’” Cockley remembered thinking. “We need somebody there that can be kind and strong, authentic and empathetic.”

In 2023, Cockley threw her hat into a crowded ring of Democratic challengers to represent District 6 in the Columbus Statehouse.

Her campaign caught the attention of gun-safety advocate David Hogg, who had launched Leaders We Deserve, a PAC “dedicated to electing young progressives to Congress and state legislatures across the country.” In March 2024, while promoting his PAC, Hogg was a guest on MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.” Cockley appeared in the segment with him to talk about the importance of progressive candidates.

“I couldn’t even be anxious because it was just so shocking that it was happening,” Cockley laughed. “It was amazing.”

Cockley beat out six challengers in the March 2024 Democratic Primary and handily beat her Republican opponent by more than 20% in the November election.

Knowing the score

More than eight months into her first term, Cockley does not hesitate to label her elected role as her “favorite job she’s ever had.” She said she has only heard from one disgruntled constituent so far, and they weren’t mad at her.

“They were mad at the government,” Cockley said. “I was like, ‘Same.’”

But she is also up front about the challenges of being a Democrat in a Republican-dominated legislature. She credits her upbringing in conservative Mansfield – her parents were once named “Democrats of the Year” while living on a fruit farm with extended family who were “hardcore Republicans” – as teaching her the importance of communicating across the aisle.

“I have to practice that every day at the Statehouse in order to get anything done,” she said.

Early wins for Cockley have included:

• Her co-sponsorship of the FIND Act, which would require law enforcement agencies in the state to enter missing people into the national database within 30 days of the filing of a police report.
• The first Democratic amendment accepted into a Republican bill signed into law from the current General Assembly, broadening the celebration of National Farmer’s Market Week to include urban farming.
• Successfully fighting for $500,000 to be earmarked for a men’s alcohol-and-other-drug recovery program in her district.

“It’s just incredibly meaningful work to make sure that my most vulnerable neighbors have a voice at the Statehouse,” Cockley said.

Out front

Growing up in rural Ohio, Cockley said it was tough to explore or even question her sexuality, making it “impossible” to put into words how she felt romantically.

As someone who was bullied for being Jewish – she has a strong childhood memory of being asked to leave a school lunch table because of her faith, with no one standing up for her – she quickly learned that being different did not translate into acceptance.

“When you are part of a vulnerable population in an area where people aren’t as open and accepting, it’s difficult to want to be open about who you are,” she said.

She was out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community  (“specifically, I consider myself queer”) to friends and family while in college, but said that she never really talked about it much.

“But I’ve also never shied away from standing up for the LGBTQ+ community and calling out attacks from extremist Republicans,” she said.

With this interview, Cockley more publicly becomes the only out LGBTQ+ member of the Ohio House of Representatives, and one of only two LGBTQ+ state legislators, joining long-serving Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood).  Madeira’s Jodi Whitted served as an out LGBTQ+ state representative in the previous General Assembly, but her district was redrawn and she was not eligible to run for election in the 28th District.

Cockley had already come out to some of her colleagues in the legislature and has found herself having to educate those around her who just don’t understand her identity.

“I have had people ask me, ‘Aren’t you just checking another box?’” Cockley said. “’If you’re queer, aren’t you just bisexual? What’s the difference? You don’t look queer. What does your husband think?’”

Cockley knows that her queerness is not always apparent to others.

“I know that I have privilege in the sense that I’m very straight-passing,” Cockley said. “I’m married to a man, and so it feels strange to talk about being queer because it feels like sometimes I’m not queer enough.”

But she compares this to those who characterize her as not Jewish enough (“Because I don’t observe Shabbat every week.”) or not disabled enough (“Because my ADHD isn’t visible.”).

“The visibility piece is something that I’ve really had to grapple with [across identities],” she said.

Working with Ohio Republicans can be hard enough, but working with them as an out queer woman is an altogether different challenge, particularly given the unabashedly anti-LGBTQ+ words and actions of the Republican supermajority. Examples include:

• Rep. Jonathan Newman (R-Troy), who told the the Dayton Daily News that trans identity “does not happen.”
• Rep. Beth Lear (R-Galena), who cited Bible verse to imply that individuals who support trans youth should be drowned.
• Rep. Angie King (R-Celina), who stood alongside neo-Nazis to protest her community’s local Pride celebration.
• Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery, who openly preached in support of conversion therapy and purposefully misgenders trans Americans on social media in too many examples to count.

Cockley explained that there is a difference between befriending these Republicans, liking them, agreeing with them and working with them. It is into that last action where she puts her focus.

She said that her colleague Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Westlake) always reminds her that sometimes their job as Democrats in a state gerrymandered to benefit Republicans is to make bills a little less harmful.

“If I can build relationships with representatives who are extremists and I can even build some trust, then I hope that that will positively impact my constituents,” Cockley said.

‘I feel proud.’

Cockley’s queerness became more public at the end of June when a colleague tagged Cockley – with Cockley’s consent – as an “LGBTQ+ Ohio leader” in a Pride Month post. She received a ton of responses, which surprised her.

“Like, I am not closeted,” she said. “I just didn’t realize that many people didn’t know.”

Elliot Imse, executive director of the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, praised Cockley’s openness, calling elected officials’ decision to come out a “bold act of defiance” and noting that there is no more critical moment than now to have more LGBTQ+ representation Ohio’s legislature.

“We commend State Rep. Cockley for sharing her story and giving more visibility to the diversity of LGBTQ+ identities who serve their communities with pride, especially as those identities are targeted and marginalized,” said Imse. “Her presence representing District 6 in the Ohio House doubles LGBTQ+ state legislative representation during this crucial time for our movement and civil rights. Rep. Cockley joins a proud and powerful global network of LGBTQ+ leaders working to improve their communities and the lives of those they represent.”

Cockley said the response to her colleague’s social media post made her want to become more confident and more open to talking about her queer identity.

Still, she wasn’t sure she should do this interview.

She received encouragement from her husband, her therapist and other out elected officials in Ohio. She also spoke to one of her best friends “in a very similar situation”: a queer woman in a relationship with a cisgender man.

“I talked to her about it and I was like, “Should I do this interview?” Cockley said. “And she said to me, ‘Christine, you need to do it. People like me and you will feel more seen and more part of the community if you do it.’”

She admitted that being more publicly out makes her feel more vulnerable, but she moves forward with pride.

“I feel proud of myself,” Cockley said, “And I feel hopeful that we can continue these conversations and make sure Ohio is a safe space for our community.”

This piece has been updated to include a quote from the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute.

 

 

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Previously Published on thebuckeyeflame

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