COLUMBUS, Ohio — Arienne Childrey resigned Monday as vice chair of the Ohio Democratic Party’s Pride Caucus, saying party leaders had limited the caucus’s ability to speak openly about LGBTQ+ issues and disagreements within the party. Childrey had served in the role for two years. In a resignation letter, she alleged the party blocked the caucus from posting a statement criticizing comments by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton about transgender athletes. Childrey also said party leaders had since reviewed the caucus’s social media posts. She argued that the caucus was being treated as a way to recruit voters for Democratic candidates rather than as a voice for LGBTQ+ Ohioans. “The job, in their eyes, is not to represent the LGBTQ+ community to the party,” she wrote, “but to sell Democratic candidates to the LGBTQ+ community.” The dispute followed Acton’s statement that she did not support “boys playing in girls sports.” Acton later said Ohio law on the issue was settled and that she was focused on other priorities. The Pride Caucus drafted a response, but Childrey said the party would not let the group publish it. The statement eventually appeared online in late September, signed by Ohio’s two openly transgender elected officials. They said Acton’s remarks had hurt them and that they disagreed with her, while also making clear they still planned to vote for her. Childrey’s departure comes amid broader tensions among Democrats over how the party should approach LGBTQ+ rights and its political strategy. Some progressive and transgender voters have criticized Democratic candidates for not doing enough on issues affecting trans Ohioans. The Ohio Democratic Party did not respond to requests for comment. A New York Times-Siena Research Institute poll of 616 Ohio voters, conducted Sept. 22 through Oct. 1, found that 50% viewed the Democratic Party as too far left and 8% as too far right; the poll’s margin of error was 4.5 percentage points.