2020/12/17 05:13 COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) 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.”
Two of the Ohio lawsuit plaintiffs, Stacie Ray and Basil Argento (Lambda Legal)
A cruel policy in Ohio that banned the legal recognition of transgender people on birth certificates has been declared unconstitutional by a federal judge.
Alongside Tennessee, Ohio is one of only two US states to maintain a policy that prohibits full gender recognition for transgender people, refusing to permit them to correct the gender marker on their birth certificates.
However, in a landmark victory on Wednesday (16 December), a federal judge sided with four transgender plaintiffs who had sued for their right to get accurate documentation.
One of the plaintiffs, Stacie Ray, was outed as transgender at work when she was required to provide her birth certificate for a new job, leading colleagues to refer to her as a “freak” and threaten to beat her up for using women’s bathrooms.