Buckeye Reporter

The Shaker Heights-based Red Wine and Blue group of "suburban wine moms" that's been fighting to keep pornographic books in Ohio K-12 school libraries issued a nationwide call to action video last week urging supporters to join them in their campaign to defeat Issue 1 on Tuesday. The group is a part of a roster of left-leaning advocacy groups that opposes the measure.

"Whether you're in Ohio or not, we need your help to get out the vote for the August 8 special election," the group tweeted July 28.

According to the Cleveland Reporter, Red Wine and Blue, founded by political consultant Katie Paris, is part of Vote No in August, a coalition of left-leaning Ohio activist groups opposing an Aug. 8 ballot initiative to make it harder to change the state constitution. The report states that Paris fears the initiative, which raises the vote threshold from 50 percent to 60 percent, would make it more difficult for groups like hers to enact laws by statewide referendum, end-running the Ohio State Legislature.

Red Wine and Blue's issue priorities include banning parental notification of teenage abortions in Ohio, requiring public schools to include instruction in so-called critical race theory, and teaching sex education far earlier, as young as first grade, while barring schools from teaching children that there is such a thing as biological sex, reported Cleveland Reporter. Red Wine and Blue promotes books like "Gender Queer" and "This Book Is Gay," which emphasize "transsexual" themes and even feature comic graphics depicting homosexual sex acts. While technically pornographic, the group holds they still have educational value, and that schools aren't encouraging children to have sex or to become gay.

Paris argued that these books are just as appropriate to each as "Shakespeare or Ernest Hemingway, (or) the Bible."

Issue 1, a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot in a special election Aug. 8, will help to strengthen Ohio's constitution, Republican lawmakers said in a release posted to Twitter. In addition to requiring 60% voter approval, the measure would require signatures gathered to support amendments to include voters from all 88 of Ohio's counties and restrict "do-overs" on signature submissions, which would give signature-gatherers one chance to properly obtain signatures for a proposed amendment.

As previously reported, Ohio is one of only 15 states which allow for ballot-driven amendments to their constitutions. Of those fifteen, four of them, Illinois, Arizona, Florida, and Colorado, have thresholds for passage above a simple majority.

Issue 1 has been endorsed by prominent Ohio leaders including Sen. JD Vance, Congressman Jim Jordan, Gov. Mike DeWine, and Secretary of State Frank LaRose.

Opposing the measure, according to prior reporting from the Buckeye Reporter, is a "roster of left-leaning advocacy groups." These groups include Black Lives Matter Cleveland, Black Lives Matter Dayton, Pro-Choice Ohio, Black Out and Proud, the Cleveland Bi+ Network, Columbus New Liberals, Democrat Socialists of America-Cleveland, Ensuring Parole for Incarcerated Citizens, New Voices for Reproductive Justice and the Ohio Federation of Teachers.

The Communist Party of Ohio also reportedly joined the Vote No in August coalition and recently gathered to “stand with drag queens and families” during a protest outside a "Drag Story Hour" event at the Near West Side Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio, according to the Cleveland Reporter.

Red Wine and Blue is not the only group soliciting support from out of state. Reportedly, 84% of the funds raised by One Person One Vote, the group leading the coalition opposing issue 1, were raised from outside of Ohio, according to a previous report. The report highlighted that 30% of that group's funding came from California.