On the LGBT Agenda, Bernie Moreno Is No Conservative

When the going gets tough, Moreno caves to the woke Left

In the race to nominate a strong conservative in Ohio’s Senate election, Republicans have a clear choice to vote against Bernie Moreno.

The car dealership mogul and University of Michigan graduate has proven he’s more of an ally to radical gay and transgender activists than Ohio social conservatives and Christians—a history he’s tried to conceal ahead of the March primary vote.

Moreno says he aims to “end wokeness and cancel culture” and “empower parents to make education choices” for their students. Yet his record suggests Moreno would sooner roll over for the Left’s woke agenda than fight it. Here are the facts.

From 2019–2021 Moreno sat on the board of MetroHealth, Cleveland’s biggest hospital system, while his company fundraised for it in 2018. MetroHealth is a top transgender and “non-binary” surgery provider—and was during Moreno’s tenure—offering “facial feminization procedures,” Adam’s apple reduction surgery, vocal cord feminization, and vaginoplasty for men “transitioning” to women. Its guidelines, adopted under Moreno’s oversight, suggest that the hospitals even offer male “chest feminization/breast augmentation” surgeries to minors.

That’s part of the hospital system’s LGBTQ+ Pride Network, which sermonizes that “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, non-binary, transgender, queer and intersex people have the same routine health needs as cisgender or heterosexual people.”

A one-off for Moreno? Not quite.

In 2018, Moreno’s dealerships also fundraised for the Cleveland Clinic, which since at least early 2017 has offered “transgender and gender-affirming medical services,” including surgically removing testes and “gynecologic care” for biological males.

For those who think that’s just a private matter and wouldn’t influence Moreno’s votes in the Senate, consider that his company support a business coalition which advocates for a sexual orientation and gender identity nondiscrimination law in Ohio.

And they’re following through with support for the Ohio Fairness Act, a Democrat-backed bill to add LGBT criteria to the state’s nondiscrimination law—something the activist Left is pushing nationwide. That’s a blank check for endless lawsuits against traditional conservatives and business owners who oppose the Left’s insane redefinition of sex and marriage.

It’s exactly that bill that the head of Ohio’s top LGBT group, Equality Ohio, referred to when he told reporters in 2021, “It is our understanding that Mr. Moreno has long been in support of basic, fundamental fairness for LGBTQ Ohioans.” That’s after he met Moreno in a June 2017—“pride” month—event, when Moreno’s company asked to be added to Equality Ohio’s political emails.

Does that sound like someone who’s going to a fighter in the culture war?

America is under assault by extremists who loathe everything Christians believe in. We need reliable, principled leadership who understand that you cannot compromise with evil. Bernie Moreno is not that man.

(READ MORE: Under Frank LaRose, Ohio Leads the Nation in Secure Elections)