Cleveland debate venue doesn’t cancel a speaker, despite the LGBT pressure

By Henry Aleksandrov | December 16, 2025

The City Club of Cleveland didn’t yield to pressure from pro-LGBT activists and refused to cancel an upcoming forum featuring a prominent Christian leader.

Dan Moulthrop, the organization’s CEO, confirmed in an interview with The Daily Signal that his company will not yield to the activists’ demands to cancel a Jan. 16, 2026, event featuring Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue, as a host.

“We’re not canceling, and we have never had any intention of canceling this,” he said. “We’re gonna continue to do what we always do, and have done for 113 years, which is convene conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive and do that with the leadership of relevant organizations who are shaping our communities.”

Baer praised the City Club of Cleveland in a statement for “holding fast” against pressure.

Center for Christian Virtue’s senior advancement director, Char Bonsignore, previously told The Buckeye Flame that the activists’ protest is a tired “cancellation” tactic from ideological enemies.

“Right now, LGBT activists in Ohio are trying to cancel CCV from speaking at the City Club of Cleveland because we believe the truths the Church has taught for more than 2,000 years,” the statement said. “We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced. Friday, January 16, will be a date that proves Christians in Ohio are not afraid to be bold for our faith!”

More than 100 pro-LGBT groups and organizations, such as Equality Ohio, the Human Rights Campaign’s Cleveland chapter and GLAAD, released an open letter on Dec. 9, published by The Flame, in which they criticized The City Club of Cleveland.

In the letter, the groups also demanded canceling the event, adding counterbalancing voices from groups such as the ACLU of Ohio, or appointing an external “moderator” who shared their beliefs.

“Free speech does not obligate institutions to give a microphone to prejudice,” the activists wrote in the letter, claiming that the event would platform “organized hate” rather than balanced debate.

The day after the letter was released, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost contacted The City Club of Cleveland in a letter, criticizing the Southern Poverty Law Center’s tactics by saying that they want to silence orthodox Christian stances on sexuality.

Yost later celebrated the organization’s response to the left-wing backlash, revealed in The Signal’s article.

“This is good news for every marginalized voice that has ever been threatened with de-platforming,” he wrote. “Kudos to @danmoulthrop and the Cleveland City Club for standing firm in their tradition of free speech.”

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