Since its founding, Equality Ohio has concurrently operated under two separate nonprofit tax identification numbers – one for Equality Ohio and another for the Equality Ohio Education Fund.[1] The latter of these retains most of the funding for the organization.[1]
In its twenty-year history, Equality Ohio has had several executive directors. The organization's first executive director, Lynne Bowman, was one of its founders, and she served as its executive director for over 5 years. Following this, Sue Doerfer became executive director in December 2009, but she announced her resignation in late 2010.[6] Doerfer was replaced by Ed Mullen, who was a former candidate for Illinois State Representative and civil rights lawyer from Chicago,[7][8] and Mullen served in this role for nearly two years. In 2012, the organization hired its fourth executive director, Elyzabeth Joy Holford,[9] and Holford left the role to return to California in 2015.[10] Following this, Alana Jochum was named the executive director in 2015.[10] Throughout its history, the organization has never been led by a transgender person or a person of color.[citation needed]
In the early 2010s, Equality Ohio focused on advancing state legislation to prohibit employment discrimination or housing discrimination based on sexual orientation.[11] During this period, the organization was also focused on the Equal Housing and Employment Act (HB 335/SB 231) and enumeration of the safe schools legislation, which was passed in January 2012. Following this, Equality Ohio focused on marriage equality.[citation needed]
In fall 2022, the organization announced that its employees had elected to form a labor union. The leadership of the organization agreed to voluntarily recognize the labor union, Equality Ohio Workers United.[12]
