“There’s something about words that have capacity. I think a lot of people don’t quite understand the way that words can move … and I think there’s a power in that that can only be communicated through spoken word,” Acie, a graduate student at Ohio University, says.

As part of Collective Majority, Acie performs spoken word poetry to get the gears of people’s minds turning, as he puts it. What started out as adolescent amusement, in the form of a middle school rap brigade, eventually turned into a poetic passion for creative communication.

“There’s something about getting that from here,” Acie taps his temple and brushes back his dark braids, “onto there,” motioning to an invisible sheet of paper in front of him, “that makes a difference. And there’s something else when you’re getting it from there out to here,” as his arms sweep through the air surrounding him.

Collective Majority is a group of spoken word artists on OU’s campus. Acie and his colleagues create food for thought in the form of poems, hoping their listeners will digest with consideration.

Holding tight to their First Amendment freedoms, the members of Collective Majority adamantly pursue paths to free speech that are not always conventional. DC Moore, a graduate student, used rap to discover salvation and save his life.

“When I was growing up, I had a very suicidal episode in my life,” DC says. Writing helped him push the demons away from his head and onto the thin lines of a notebook.

Creativity, DC says, is the key to making words stick and stay for good.

Land of Opportunity

Inna Bagrich, a junior at OU, and her mother immigrated to America to escape possible execution and grasp at opportunity. Originally from Kharkiv, Ukraine, the political science student fled the clutches of organized crime.

In 1991, Inna’s mother, a currency exchange officer, faced the possibility of execution through beheading. At that time, organized crime was growing in Ukraine and armed gangsters were making late-night visits to kiosks, beheading the exchange workers that did not comply with their demands. Not wanting to compromise her daughter’s life if she were to be killed, Inna’s mother immediately applied for a visa and took to the United States in hopes of pursuing the legendary American Dream.

“This is definitely the land of opportunity, despite it all,” Inna says with a glint in her blue eyes and a smile tracing her lips. “You can pretty much have hope here and that’s what my family has and we love it.”

For Inna, America was the gateway to success and safety, a bright, glaring arrow that pointed her and her mother in its direction. But are the inherit freedoms of America, carefully penned into our foundational documents, still accessible in our modern society?

Freedom of speech drives Collective Majority to speak, or rather perform, to the masses about controversial subjects. As Torrin Jacobs, founder of the group, says; we live in a nation where what needs to be discussed isn’t always discussed.

“We live in a fast-food culture,” Jacobs says in reference to the “grab-and-go” mindset most Americans have. Spoken word is the vehicle he uses to start substantive conversations . “If you’re not getting angry … or you’re not getting excited or laughing then I’m not doing my job as a poet and I need to try harder.”

But the ability to speak freely, without retaliation, is something that Americans might have let carelessly slip through the cracks. Speech, when hurtful, shouldn’t ever leap off the tongue, according to Acie.

“It seems pretty straightforward, but there’s a lot more to it,” he says. “A lot of people feel like, ‘I have the freedom to say whatever I want to say.’ Well, if that infringes on somebody else … then you should not have the right to say what you choose.”

But for Inna, who has experienced the way that speech can be chained up and held back, Americans are perhaps taking these freedoms too lightly.

People in the United States are passive, in her perspective. She tells the story of a friend who griped about the high price of gasoline. Her friend continued that she was surprised there was not an uprising of picketers at gas stations across America. To Inna, who has seen the fall of the Soviet Union and the effect that organized crime has had on her country, Americans have a real chance to make change happen, however, they fail to utilize the rights handed to them at birth.

“It seems like as many people are in the states, and as much as the principles of this country are always reiterated … more masses would get together for change, but I don’t really see it happening as much as I thought it would.”

No "Formal" Penalty

Cotrell Loftin, another member of Collective Majority and a senior journalism student, treads the line in her decision to speak freely. To her, there may be no institutional laws in place to punish those who speak liberally, but there are subtle societal consequences.

“You don’t have a formal penalty, but there are a lot of symbolic penalties that come along with certain things that are said,” Cotrell says.

In order to avoid this invisible backlash, Collective Majority takes the surrealism of their artistic performance to subconsciously lure their audience into exploring different subject matter, whether it is dark and twisted, politically controversial, ignored by many, or just downright uncomfortable.

“Turning it into a performance changes the entire equation. It changes the way it’s perceived,” Acie says. “There’s kind of like this luxury of being up on stage. As personal as it is, there’s still something very impersonal about it.”

What ultimately binds the threads of spoken word artists together is a community of creativity and support. Torrin’s mission for Collective Majority was to bring together all types of individuals with every kind of mindset or artistic vision as a unifying force.

For Cotrell, a relationship is built through her writing and verbalization. She wants to get the conversation started through her art and she wants it to keep going.

“What I hope is that it doesn’t stop at conversation; it turns into action,” she says.

Like the hard and fast freedoms engrained into American society granted to the people through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, spoken word artists hope their message endures as long as these documents. And if not that long, then maybe their words will make their way into the soul somehow.

“Everybody’s had that moment where you heard something and when it hit, it hit,” Acie says with bravado in his deep voice, “and it touched the very fiber of your being. That sort of experience … it just courses through you, you know? And those are the type of things that literally leave an imprint on you.”

As an activist and organizer for environmental justice, Ben works to create tangible change in his community. Ben lives and works on a three-acre farm in an East Cleveland neighborhood. For Ben, Community Greenhouse Partners (the farm) symbolizes the transformation of his beliefs into direct action. The term direct action dates back to the Civil Rights Movement, defining actions that are designed to create solutions to an existing social problems.

Community Greenhouse Partners is a nonprofit working to address the lack of accessible fresh produce in urban communities. It consists of six handmade greenhouses, a compost station, and what used to be a Catholic church, which Ben uses to teach activist workshops. The farm produces fruits and vegetables, which are sold at local restaurants and markets.

Ben grew up in Richmond, Virginia, before attending Oberlin College, where he studied politics and environmental studies. He became conscious about the power of his own voice after a friend passed on a simple yet profound message. “He told me that as students we have a lot of ability, a lot of power, and a lot of privilege, and we could work with directly impacted communities and make a difference. I think in that moment I decided I wanted to become an activist and organizer.” Ben says.

Ben has been in Ohio for eight years now, where he is putting the beliefs he found in college to work. He has been involved in anti-mountaintop removal, student organizing, and anti-fracking communities. He worked as the spokesperson for specific Occupy Cleveland actions.

Ben was arrested in November for shutting down D&L Energy, an oil and natural gas group based in Youngstown, Ohio. He and others blockaded truck routes and temporarily shut-down plant operations.

“Ultimately, we decided this is the right thing to do; this needs to be stopped. We believed it so strongly that our words weren’t enough, our bodies had to become speech.”

Ben and a group of activists gathered at the entrance and exit of the plant, holding signs and impeding trucks, which were bringing “brine” (waste water from hydraulic fracturing) to an injection well for disposal. After three hours, the police showed up.

“We decided that it was important to us and our message that we not leave, that we not allow operations to continue until we were forcibly removed.” Ben recalls. He did not resist arrest and was taken away in handcuffs.

Ben was also involved in the Occupy Cleveland protest in Public Square on October 21st, which resulted in 11 arrests. The city set a curfew at 10 p.m., in part to get groups like Occupy out. According to Ben, part of Occupy’s intention was to build support and educate people in public spaces where citizens’ voices could be heard.

Despite the curfew, Ben and the few hundred protesters, who gathered in the square, used the space as a public forum to express their rights as citizens. They decided that the curfew represented the type of injustice they were protesting and they would not leave unless they were arrested.

“The tension was building … there were police, shouting and yelling and chanting, and media, and this sort of beautiful scene where people everywhere just demanded their basic rights to be in this park, demanding democracy,” Ben says.

Although the protest was nonviolent, the curfew violation cost the protesters a night in jail. Legally, there is a fine line between free speech and the type of action that constitutes a night behind bars.

A Fine Line

“As long as protesters know what their mission is, then I support free and open protest,” says Sheriff Patrick Kelly. “But, when it crosses the line to violence or taking away someone else’s First Amendment rights, that’s when we have to step in.”

Kelly began working in local law enforcement in 1977 and has been the sheriff of Athens County for three years. As he reflects on his experiences in law enforcement, he can not recall a seriously violent protest since those following the Kent Shootings in 1970.

First Amendment rights are divided up into protected symbolic speech and unprotected symbolic speech. It is often extremely difficult to identify what speech is truly protected. Each case is different depending on the details of the incident.

Protected symbolic speech may include things like swastikas, flag burning, and cross burning. However, symbolic speech considered threatening is not protected. In many cases of acts like cross burning, the distinction between protected and unprotected speech depends entirely on specific context and intent.

Political Acts

The First Amendment rights sometimes mean different things to different people. “I think we have a confusion about speech in society. I think we confuse speaking and words with speech,” Ben says. “For me, speech is an inherently political act.”

Ben believes that words without actions are hollow. He believes that speech is an inherently social function that represents an ability to connect with other people and to share a sense of the world.

He hosts activist workshops in the former church located on the farm. These workshops introduce activists to tactics used in the civil rights movement to effectively create change. “I think that one of the messages that I tell people is that they’re powerful. The things that affect their lives happen because we are robbed of our sense of power and how to use it,” he says.

David Hodo, known as “Tennessee,” met Ben at an Occupy Foreclosure protest. Tennessee, originally from Nashville, was living and working in Cleveland as a high-rise window washer downtown, until he was laid off. He was upset that he spent months washing the windows of all the big banks and could not receive unemployment.

“Protesting and holding up signs and yelling at the bank is one thing. That lets them know that you’re mad,” David says. “That lets the people walking up and down the street know that there’s something going on. Direct actions are what really change things…”

“People are busy, their lives are hard, and often times an action comes from a sense of despair,” Ben says. It can also generate a sense of community and solidarity.

Jessica Young, a 26-year-old web developer from Cleveland Heights, felt a strong sense of community and connection through her involvement in Occupy. “When the President gave the State of the Union Address a couple months ago … he would speak and I would say,'those are Occupy issues,' that’s us speaking through him,” she says.

Jessica became a member of Occupy because she is concerned about environmental issues, as well as people who are down on their luck and face foreclosure. She believes most people share a concept of a common good. “When you get right down into it, we want the same basic thing,” Jessica says.

Ben believes that the Occupy movement is notable because it created an open forum for speech and resulted in a change in the tone of public discourse.

Despite obstacles, Ben remains optimistic about positive change. “I don’t think it’s going to be easy. I don’t think that it’s not going to be painful. One day in the future, I’m looking forward to telling people that we were facing a crisis and we weren’t sure what to do, but we decided to act. That’s where I see myself one day, looking back,” he says.

Recent transplants to Athens, Ohio, Cory and Rebecca Crawford previously lived in larger urban communities in Massachusetts and Utah. Their transition to small town life has come with some surprises. After moving into their home, the Crawfords began extensive renovations to the property. Understanding of their situation, church members offered to open their homes to the family until major repairs were completed.

“We would come home covered in dust and dirt from working and this neat, wonderful lady would say ‘Eat dinner with my family,’” Rebecca recalls. “She’d treat us like we were one of the family. And feed us dinner. And they loved our kids and they spoiled them like they were grandparents.”

The Athens ward, a larger Latter-day Saints (LDS) congregation overseen by a bishop, emphasizes proactive communal fellowship. Hans Meyer, a church member and journalism professor at Ohio University details this philosophy.

“Just like any other community organization, I think the church exists to build the community up, to make it a better place,” Hans says.

In recent years, community initiatives have extended into more public arenas to educate others about the Mormon tradition. Though there are approximately 6 million practitioners in the United States, these numbers make up a small percentage of the nation’s religious population. However, this Christian tradition experiences more nationwide attention and scrutiny as a result of current popular events.

Mormonism became a point of interest on the 2012 campaign trail. Two GOP candidates, Jon M. Huntsman Jr. and Mitt Romney, are LDS members. Though Huntsman’s bid for presidential nomination ended early in the primaries, Romney has secured the nomination from the Republican Party.

This marks Romney’s second presidential campaign. He vied for the nomination in the 2008 election, but John McCain ended up on the ticket. In both campaigns, Romney’s religious affiliation became a hot button topic among American citizens. During the 2012 primary, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley voiced concerns about Romney’s religion in an interview.

“I think this is a very subtle issue … that may be a problem in many states – not just Alabama.” Bentley’s assumption is supported by a Gallup poll conducted in June 2011, which concluded one in five U.S. voters would not support a Mormon candidate for president. In a country where freedom of religion is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, it seems some citizens may believe certain beliefs are best kept in the privacy of one’s home rather than the Oval Office.

Attempting to keep religion out of the public debate, Romney rarely speaks about his faith. However in 2007, he addressed opponents of his religious affiliation in a speech entitled "Faith in America" at the George Bush Presidential Library: “They would prefer it if I would simply distance myself from my religion, say that it is no more a tradition than my personal conviction, or disavow one or another of its precepts. That I will not do. I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers – I will be true to them and to my beliefs.”

Three Mormon missionaries, known as Elders, discuss their experiences of sharing their faith. Missionaries, on a volunteer basis, commit to spending two years studying the teachings of LDS and often go door-to-door within a community assigned to them by the Church. During this time, they have little contact with their families and put school and work on hold. According to the LDS website, most missionaries are about 20 years old. Athens has two LDS missionaries at all times. While working in the community, the Elders dine with different LDS families each night, which they say creates a sense of community and provides a surrogate family for them.

The complex relationship and perception of Mormonism within the Christian tradition and the public eye has existed since the establishment of the religion in the 1820s. Mormonism emerged during the Second Great Awakening, a Christian restoration movement, which also produced the Shakers and several Baptists sects. This movement focused on returning the Christian church to its origins and viewed this reestablishment as a purer form of the tradition. Michael McVicar, professor of comparative studies at The Ohio State University describes the “primitivism” idea.

“Mormons believe there was the original church set up by Jesus Christ and then there was a long period of corruption where that church disappeared,” Michael says, “Joseph Smith claimed to be restoring it through his revelation.”

The Mormonism founder and prophet, Joseph Smith Jr., established the faith in his home state of New York before migrating to Ohio in the early 1830s. Congregations continued to grow along the Midwest, but pioneering a new religion often entailed persecution.

“It kind of blows my mind when I think of the early history of the church,” Rebecca says. “Heartbreaking stories about houses being burned, people being shot, and people's farms being stolen.”

Though Mormonism has evolved into an established religion, stereotypes and misconceptions linger. In 2009, Mormon leaders contracted with Ogilvy & Mather and Hall & Partners, two advertising agencies, in order to discover how Americans are interpreting the church and its members. Through focus groups and surveys, the firms’ findings determined that Mormons are often associated with such terms as “secretive,” “controlling,” and “cultish.”

These cultural perceptions and prejudices trickle down to impact individual members of the church. While living in Boston, Rebecca and her sister were browsing a video store when the owner approached them to ask if the women were Mormon. After confirming the store owner's assumption, they were surprised by her reaction. “ She went, ‘You people.’… And was disgusted and walked away,” Rebecca says.

Such incidents and an acute awareness of public perception of Mormons originally influenced Rebecca’s outward expression of her beliefs.

“I used to hide that I was Mormon,” She admits. “Not hide it, but not bring it up. Because I didn’t want people not to like me because I was LDS.”

Having personally faced negative experiences based on their religious practices, Rebecca and Cory raise their three children in a home that emphasizes openness to other beliefs as well as encourages inquiries into their own faith.

“The example I try to set is one sort of thoughtfulness about the tradition,” Cory explains. “One that’s not so rigid that the kids will hide behind a blanket of mindless orthodoxy.”

On one occasion, their son Hyrum came to Cory and asked about the biblical story of David and Goliath and whether it was historically true. As a professor of classics and world religions at Ohio University, Cory’s career is dedicated to biblical interpretation.

“We had a talk about the value of a story and we talked about some of the evidences from the Bible,” Cory says. “I tried to introduce complexity and at the end he goes, ‘So did David really kill Goliath?’”

Like any teacher, Cory preferred that Hyrum find his own answer to the question. Though his parental approach is different than Cory’s own childhood, he feels this method will stretch his children's minds and spirits.

“I try to help them look at things and to make decisions on their own. To teach them from my own perspective, but to also allow them to experience the world on their own and to seek answers for those questions. I try to be a faithful, tolerant, inquisitive person. I hope that will help them as they go throughout their lives.”

Gary has been shooting since the age of six. He brought a .22 rifle to show-and-tell in first grade. For many in Southeast Ohio, guns are woven into the fabric of life. In the state of Ohio, anyone over the age of 18, who has not been convicted of a felony, can own a rifle or shotgun. Anyone over 21, meeting the same requirements, can own a handgun. Federal and Ohio gun laws have not changed in the past decade, but each election year gun owners grow wary.

Gun laws haven't changed, but ownership is rising. According to a 2011 Gallup poll, 43% of American adults own a gun, the highest percentage since 1993.

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• How old are you?

  • Over 21
  • Under 21

  47 percent of American adults report that they have a gun in their home or on the premises, according to a 2011 Gallup poll. This is the highest level of gun ownership since 1993.

  You must be 21 to purchase a handgun, but if you are over 18 you can buy a rifle or a shotgun.

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• Do any of these apply to you?

  • Fugitive
  • Convicted Felon
  • Alcoholic or Drug Dependent
  • Been Committed to a Mental Institution
  • None of the Above

  In addition to this criminal background check, if you are charged with an offense during the application process, the sheriff can suspend your application until your case is resolved.

  If you have any of these previous charges, you cannot buy and carry a handgun.

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• How long have you lived in Ohio?

  • Over 45 Days
  • Under 45 Days

  In 2011, Ohio issued a total of 11,965 concealed carry licenses, renewed 239 licenses, suspended 201 licenses, revoked 33 licenses, and denied 199 licenses.

  You have to live in Ohio for at least 45 days before applying for a concealed carry license.

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• How long have you lived in the county where you are applying?

  • Over 30 Days
  • Under 30 Days

  In 2011, Athens County issued 32 concealed carry licenses, renewed 3 licenses, and denied 3 licenses.

  You have to live in the county where you apply for at least 30 days before applying for a concealed carry license.

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• Do you have $67?

  • Yes
  • No

  In West Virginia, the application fee is $75 and a $15 fee is issued when the license is granted. Typically, it is $90 for a license in the state to the south.

  You must pay a minimum fee of $67 for the background check the sheriff must conduct.

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If you qualified on all of the steps to buy and carry a concealed handgun in Ohio, all you have to do is take a 12 hour education course, pay your application fee and pass the background check to complete the process.

With higher numbers comes an increasing variety of gun owners, who value their firearms for different reasons. The gun owners of Southeast Ohio range from a 21-year-old girl who loves Hello Kitty to a Vietnam veteran who teaches concealed carry classes.

Gary George

Gary, a carpet cleaner by day and "living historian" by hobby, has crafted 11 rifles, many of which he sold; the rest he made for himself and his wife. Each gun takes a year to make in his Albany, Ohio home, and they sell for around $2,000 each. To him, guns are an art form as well as a tool.

“There’s something peaceful and gratifying about making them. When I’m long gone, it’s nice to know that many pieces of me will be left behind in my guns,” he says, smiling.

Gary is dressed in traditional colonial garb, complete with a tri-corner hat and a powder horn slung around his shoulder. He spends six to eight weekends a year “rendezvousing.” Rendezvousing is similar to historical reenacting in that groups of individuals, each with a different job or task from blacksmith to gunsmith, gather and live as though it were the late 1700s or early 1800s. Gary is a gunsmith who goes by Flat Rock.

Beyond rendezvousing, Gary gives presentations at the annual Pawpaw festival and at local schools to better educate the public about American history and the role that firearms played. Since Gary is well versed in America’s gun history, he is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment.

“That’s why it was written into the constitution, the right to keep and bear arms, you know, for our freedom. Because once they take your firearms, the government can tell you to do anything because you have no way to fight back,” Gary says. “I hate to say this … but I will not give up my firearms. Because I believe it is a God-given right that is not given to me by man.”

As a gun owner, Gary is concerned about what the next President might bring to the table in terms of gun laws. He thinks the current Obama administration is anti-gun and considers himself a "Ron Paul man".

“In the past we have had a gun ban on semi-automatics and from what I hear from the NRA [National Rifle Association], from things through the White House, that that is [Obama’s] next step; to outlaw semi-automatics,” Gary says.

The ban he cites on semi-automatic weapons occurred between the years of 1994 and 2004 and is known as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Semi-automatic weapons shoot only once when one pulls the trigger, unlike automatic weapons that shoot many rounds, but semi-automatics are typically seen as dangerous because they automatically reload. The Clinton administration banned the production, sale and ownership of 19 types of semi-automatic weapons in 1994. The Bush Administration did not renew the ban in 2004.

“In my opinion … guns do not kill people, people kill people. Firearms are safe if they are used correctly and I honestly believe that people have the right to protect themselves,” Gary says. “If they do outlaw firearms who’s going to have them? The law-abiding citizen will give his up, while the criminal doesn’t care about laws, and they will have them.”

Suzy Souhrada

Suzy Souhrada describes her bedroom as a cross between a “6-year-old and a mom,” as evidenced by the handmade flowers that adorn her lofted bed and the swath of Bath and Body Works candles on the coffee table. In the candy-colored room, two large black cases hold her guns: a .22 and a .38 Special. They were gifts from her father, along with the training course to earn her concealed carry permit.

The 21-year-old Ohio University math education major is unfazed by the guns she now holds in her lap. Her father, who worked for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, always had guns. She believes that the current societal fear of firearms stems from the fear of the unknown.

“People teach kids just to be afraid of guns and that’s the worst thing ever. Like, when you hear on the news, a little kid found a gun and accidentally killed his friend, it’s probably because they were curious because they were taught, ‘just don’t touch it,’” Suzy says.

During Suzy’s childhood, her dad always placed the guns on the table when he came home. He taught his children the dangers of guns as well as their practical uses.

“I think it sounds funny when I talk about guns, because I am basically from the suburbs. I don’t hunt and I am a girl. I don’t look like a gun enthusiast,” she says with a laugh, waving at the pillows of her bed dappled with floral prints. “It’s like my little secret … that I tell everyone.”

One of Suzy’s favorite activities is shooting with friends who have never shot before. “You don’t have to pull the trigger with your whole finger; you just have to squeeze it slightly. Hold it with one hand on top of the other for stability. Line up your sights,” she says. Then she takes a shot. “It feels really powerful,” she says, laughing sheepishly.

Kevin Martin

Kevin sits in a room decked with American flags and machinery. The room is the operational base for his business, Athens Home and Garden. The room also serves as a training facility for his concealed carry handgun classes. Kevin has owned his own business and has taught self-defense since 1984. Besides the concealed carry classes, he teaches Bando, the Burmese form of martial arts, which includes stick and blade fighting, as well as hand-to-hand combat. Kevin can trace his ancestry in the Athens area back more than 200 years and he has lived in Athens all of his life, save for his stint fighting in the navy during the Vietnam War.

“A person should learn self-defense,” he says, gesturing to the rules of how to handle a firearm hanging on his walls. As an instructor, he has noticed an increase in class size in recent years.

“Fifty percent of my classes are women, and most of them are retired. How does a frail old woman defend herself?” he asks. “To be able to have the right to carry a concealed weapon on yourself, that’s a beautiful law.”

Even as a certified instructor and a fervent defender of the Second Amendment, Kevin is not a devout follower of the National Rifle Association.

“I try not to get too involved with the National Rifle Association. They spit out a lot of right wing rhetoric, and I happen to be a Democrat,” he says. “I think they’re quite radical to be quite honest, but they are the strongest organization in the world for the preservation of firearms.”

And preservation is important to Martin who is also a federally certified firearms salesman. As a salesman, he says he has noticed increased pressure from the Obama administration to monitor the sales of firearms. Though he does not think Obama himself will make changes to gun law if re-elected, he thinks future Supreme Court appointees could make more anti-gun decisions. Furthermore, he fears that the media, since the 1980s, has become increasingly anti-gun. For him, the Second Amendment is a cornerstone of the country’s foundation.

“I mean think about it. The Second Amendment was put where it is for a purpose, to protect the First Amendment,” he says.

Rob Driscoll

Dressed in a black suit and tie, one would never guess that the Assistant County Prosecutor of Athens County for the past 14 years is a firearms instructor on the side. Rob was an avid hunter before he stumbled upon Project Appleseed. The program, fueled by non-profit organization the Revolutionary War Veterans Association, weaves together lessons on American history and gun training. Through his work with the program, Rob says he has become a better shot and is now an instructor himself. As a gun owner, he states repeatedly that his opinions on guns stem from his experience and are not representative of his office. As Assistant County Prosecutor, the most common gun crime he sees results from the use of firearms while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

“Much like oil and water, guns and alcohol don’t mix very well,” he says. He emphasizes that those who are responsible gun owners should not be penalized.

For Rob, there is no need for more gun laws, because there are plenty on the books already. Instead, he thinks the police and county prosecutors should focus on enforcing the laws that already exist by communicating better on a county-by-county basis.

The most recent change in gun law came from the Supreme Court in 2008. In the District of Columbia v. Heller, the Court lifted the ban on owning handguns in D.C. In the 2010 case McDonald v. Chicago, the Court reiterated that all rulings regarding the Second Amendment apply in all states and federal enclaves. Rob says the case reinforces that the Second Amendment should be monitored federally.

“The importance of it [the Second Amendment] is so that people can protect themselves,” he says.

This right to self-preservation is echoed by many gun owners throughout Southeast Ohio and just might be the one point on which they all agree.

The shots that aided Jacob’s transformation were not always so easy. “It started a battle in his body,” his wife, Erin, says. “I [would] come home from work and he would be doubled over in the bathroom … in tears, having just have been throwing up from the pain.”

Jacob’s battle as a transgender man is not just physical. His life is truly indicative of the struggle and triumph brought about by changing liberties in the United States. The fight for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) rights may be considered a modern-day equivalent to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. But as states slowly decide on same-sex marriage for themselves, transgender individuals are often not included in the legislation.

Jacob and Erin were recently locked in a legislative battle of their own. In 2004, Ohio passed a ban on same-sex marriage. This coupled with an older law that prevents transgender individuals from changing their sex on their birth certificates means Jacob’s gender, which was legally changed in his former home of New Hampshire, is not recognized by the state of Ohio.

Susan Young, Staff Psychologist at Ohio University and founder of the Spectrum Transgender Support Group, explains the legal confusion: “As far as the birth certificate in the state of Ohio, you cannot change the sex designation on your birth certificate ever. And you can't change your gender designation for the rest of your paperwork until you are completely transitioned top and bottom."

Like many transgender persons, Jacob has only undergone top surgery. Female to male bottom surgery is uncommon and extremely dangerous. Susan says many transgender males live in a liminal gender state and therefore cannot be recognized in Ohio as male.

These discrepancies in state laws create a situation where the nearly 700,000 transgender individuals in the United States find their rights and liberties in limbo when moving from state to state. In order to marry as man and woman, the couple was forced out of Ohio and back to New Hampshire for the legal document.

Jacob and Erin do not stand idly by waiting for their rights to be given to them. The couple is involved with TransOhio, an advocacy group that pushes for transgender rights. For Jacob, the issue is simple. “All we wanted was to be able to marry the person that we loved,” he says. “People believed in our marriage, and we believed that we should. We deserve to have the rights that everyone else does.

Rights in Southeast Ohio

• Infographic by Skye Gould

Women's Rights

Civil Rights

Gay Rights

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