io's LGBT and Ally Community 0L ASHTON RANSITIONING THE STATE OF THE ON YOUTUBE TRANSGENDER FIGH FOR EQUALITY CINCY & COLUMBUS: EMBERING LGBT FILM ELEBRATING TRANS DAY OF REMEMBRANCE j£ IH ft VIEW ?Z'Z'.'li. " qmunity A NEW iATTL T©W IN .ears After Filmmakers Documented Tensions Between Gay and Black Residents in Columbus' Olde Towne East Neighbors Unite Against Big Developers Chief Baba Shongo Obadina Story by AndrewJCeller that residents hung from their homes. The conflict between old and new residents thqfset the stage for a film like Flag Wars Photos by Andrew Spear portrayed in Flag Wars, while not a bygone in the first place. Go to a meeting of the Olde Towne East issue to all, seems to many to be a thing of •;i7 This Nov. 1, as part of a celebration of its Neighborhood Association today, however, the past. A newer influx of straight families, '."Gentrification only occurs when there is a Film/Video Residency Program, the Wexner and such discussion is nowhere to be young people and developers is ushering certain level of disinvestment [in the neigh- Center for the Arts in Columbus will screen found. On a September 2015 agenda filled the neighborhood into yet another stage of : borhood]," she said. "Only when you have Flag Wars, a documentary chronicling gen- mostly with construction and beautification gentrification and adding a new chapter to this disinvestment does it become prof­ trification in the city's Olde Tow»e East projects, the only item of concern for resi­ the history of Olde Towne East. J itable to reinvest in it." neighborhood. dents was the construction of a large, i modern-looking apartment building at the That a once-poor neighborhood could at- I Longtime resident Roger Bohn and his hus­ The 2003 film portrayed the issue through corner of 18th and Main streets. Some see tract such interest might surprise some. ' band moved to the neighborhood when the lens of identity politics, framing the it and other lar^e-scale development as a But to Bernadette Hanlon, assistant profesj they were looking for a home in the 1990s. story with images of the flags of both the threat to the character of a neighborhood sor of city and regional planning at Ohio The neighborhood of big Italianate, Victo­ LGBT and African-American communities whose homes date to the late 1800s. State University, it's part of the same forces rian, Gothic Revival and other homes - it 10 november2015 •II outlookohio.com was once called the Silk Stocking District be­ gentrification and the city's cause of its affluence - had become, as Bohn reaction to it pushed out described it, "a bit Wild West-y." many residents of Olde Towne East who couldn't "There were a lot of drug houses. We had one afford to keep their homes apartment building easily doing 100 deals a maintained at a new stan­ night, without skipping a beat" Bohn said. dard. "Their customer service must have been amazing." But as more new home- 'We were the only gay people living along here for a while. buyers fol­ lowed, Bohn But nowadays, we have... gay, gay, gay, gay, straight, gay, said, the not sure, gay,straight, gay, gay and gay-friendly..." neighborhood became in­ I creasingly at­ tractive to investors. "That was hitting right around 2005. That's when it really started. Even today, he said, African-Ameri­ As more affluent residents move into the You really saw people buying homes and fix­ cans are losing their homes as the area, more businesses and development are ing them up, and then flipping them." last untouched patches of the neigh­ following. And just as community members borhood are being developed. tudes is part of the growing desirability of such as Obadina felt threatened by the last According to Bohn, he and many other LGBT areas such as Olde Towne East. Elsewhere in influx, many such as Bohn feel big develop­ residents experienced little resistance or ten­ "The biggest thing has been code enforce­ Ohio, Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine, Cleve­ ments could threaten the character of their sion with those who had lived in Olde Town ment," Obadina said. "They see an indige­ land's Ohio City, Dayton's Oregon District and neighborhood today. East before their arrival - despite what's nous person that doesn't make the same Toledo's Old West End have experienced simi­ shown in Flag Wars. And nowadays, he said, money, they are busy trying to survive,... they lar changes. Such plans are even beginning to draw ac­ LGBT people are the norm. don't have the assets to put into that prop­ tive resistance. When a developer proposed a erty, to fix it up,... and they hit them with it." "There's a millennial population not wanting seven-story building on Parsons Avenue, the "We were the only gay people living along to move into a suburban lifestyle," she said. community took to the streets and the devel­ here for a while. But nowadays," he said, "It's changing still in that black people are "Either because they don't want to, or in oper downsized the plan. pointing from his living room to each of his being pushed out and white people are mov­ some cases they can't afford it." neighbors, "we have... gay, gay, gay, gay, ing in. It's all about land. We [this neighbor­ But just as Obadina laments the loss of the straight, gay, not sure, gay, straight, gay, gay hood] have the best houses,... the best Heather Worthington, a lawyer for Franklin pre-Flag Wars Olde Towne East and ex­ and gay-friendly..." space." County and a mother, moved in precisely be­ presses uncertainty that the trend can be re­ cause she wanted a nicer neighborhood versed, Bohn admits the latest type of But if Bohn and others experienced no real But Bohn and Obadina agree on one thing: where she could be closer to work. development can't be held back forever in conflict, the influx of new buyers had a big Today, the demographic trends are shifting the neighborhood he has come to know. impact on the poorer African-American resi­ toward straight white families and young "We were really drawn here by the neighbor­ dents who had been the neighborhood's ma­ white singles who often follow LGBT people hood, the houses and how easy it was to get "It's not going to look like the 1800s forever," jority since the 1990s. Chief Baba Shongo into urban neighborhoods. around, and by the affordability of Olde he said. Obadina. an African-American art gallery Towne East vs. a neighborhood in, say, Bexley proprietor and a subject of Flag Wars, said OSU's Hanlon said a change in social atti- community. Now a common phenomenon, The 2003 documentary by Linda gay families began moving into the area Goode Bryant and Laura Poitras in the 1990s. Attracted by its relatively in­ will be shown on Sunday, Nov. 1 expensive Victorian homes, their renova­ at the Wexner Center (1871N tions began increasing property values High St, Columbus, 43210) at and displacing the neighborhood's work­ 3p as the final installment of a WARS ing-class families, many of them African- series celebrating 25 years of , Andrew Keller grew up in American. Clashes arose, exposing film and video residencies, i Cincinnati, graduated with Filmed in Columbus' Olde Towne East a degree in journalism prejudice and self-interest on both sides Tickets are $8, or $6 for j neighborhood over a period of four years, from OSU and now lives in Flag Wars is a very personal account of as well as the common dream of having a members, students or sen- m Columbus. He writes regu­ urban gentrification and its effects on a home to call your own. larly for Outlook. outlookohio.com Transgender, Crossdressing, Gender Variant Peer Support (Columbus): [email protected]. november 2015 11 by Luke Darby based on gender identity, but it exempts that a male-bodied person will be in the dergone or is undergoing gender transi­ anyone who denies a transgender person women's bathroom." tion to use the restroom in a place of A coalition of LGBT groups has banded access to the restroom of his, her or their public accommodation or their workplace together to change a law in Cleveland identity. The proposed ordinance would Social conservative activists have fought that matches the gender they live every­ that gives bosses and business owners have no effect on religious institutions or similar legislation in other parts of the day, but without fear of violence, harass­ the right to tell transgender people schools. country by stoking fears. In August 2014, ment or discrimination. This ordinance which restroom they must use. voters in Fayetteville, Ark., rejected a does not change the fact that it is illegal Ohio's track record on transgender dis­ similar measure after Michelle Duggar to enter a restroom to harm people, ha­ An ordinance first proposed two years crimination is disheartening. Of nearly recorded a robocall warning that the law rass people or invade people's privacy." ago would put Cleveland in line with 200 trans Ohioans who responded to a would allow "males with past child pred­ more than 150 other cities across the 2011 discrimination survey from the Na­ ator convictions that [sic] claim they are "The concern is that there's some way country that allow transgender people to tional Center for Transgender Equality female" to use women's restrooms. that some predator might use that to use public restrooms in line with their and the National LGBTQ Task Force, 81 their advantage," Stubbs said.