(10 WBNS) – In response to a lawsuit brought by four transgender people, a federal court found Ohio’s birth certificate rule unconstitutional. The state is likely to appeal. Ohio can’t keep refusing to allow people to change the gender listings on their birth certificates, a federal court ruled Wednesday.
In response to a lawsuit brought by four transgender people, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio found Ohio’s birth certificate rule imposed by the state Department of Health and the Office of Vital Statistics is unconstitutional. The state is likely to appeal.
Judge Michael Watson rejected the state of Ohio’s arguments that the policy helped prevent fraud and maintain a historically accurate record of its citizenry. He called such justifications “nothing more than thinly veiled post-hoc rationales to deflect from the discriminatory impact of the policy.”
The court sided with the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio, and Lambda Legal, which argued on behalf of plaintiffs that the state’s requirement prevents transgender people from obtaining a document essential to everyday living and subjects them to discrimination and potential violence.
The lawsuit, which listed the plaintiffs as three females and one male, claimed the birth certificate rule imposed by the Ohio Department of Health and the state Office of Vital Statistics is inconsistent with the state’s practice of permitting transgender people to correct gender markers on their driver’s licenses and state identification cards. READ MORE
