Four transgender individuals filed a lawsuit Thursday against OH saying the state won't allow them to change the gender listing of their birth certificates to properly reflect their identities.
At a news conference announcing the suit, two of the plaintiffs said their inaccurate documents add months to routine tasks such as pre-employment background checks.
OH is one of only three states, including Tennessee and Kansas, that will not change gender markers even when the person has undergone gender confirmation surgery and has written confirmation from a physician or medical provider that they've undergone a gender transition.
The birth certificate policy puts OH out of step with the majority of American states, but it also impedes Ohioans who depend on the certificates as they look for jobs, open bank accounts, travel and seek access to health care, education, government benefits and housing, according to the plaintiffs.
The state Department of Health has declined to comment.
Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, and ACLU of OH are suing the Buckeye State for a policy that prohibits people from changing the gender marker on their birth certificates, for any reason, at any time.
"Ohio's refusal to issue such birth certificates erects a barrier to the full recognition, participation, and inclusion of transgender people in society and subjects them to discrimination, privacy invasions, harassment, humiliation, stigma, harm to their health, and even violence", the complaint reads. The four OH plaintiffs say they've faced employment and other issues because their birth certificate doesn't match their gender. Only Tennessee and Kansas also do not allow individuals to change their gender marker on birth certificates. The federal government allows transgender citizens to change their USA passports and Social Security information.
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The complaint names as defendants Ohio Department of Health Director Lance Himes, Office of Vital Statistics Chief Karen Sorrell, and Office of Vital Statistics Registrar Judith Nagy.
Citizens for Community Values, an Ohio-based conservative advocacy group, said the ACLU's claims are "based in junk science".
Stacie Ray, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said she was threatened with physical violence by a coworker who learned she was a transgender woman after a human resources official loudly questioned Ray about why her birth certificate listed her as male. But he says the ACLU is sacrificing medical accuracy for political ideology.
Most states allow people to change their birth certificates to reflect their gender identity rather than the gender they were assigned at birth.
"Beyond the indignity of having a birth certificate that does not reflect my reality and the hassles and marginal harm it has caused me in various situations over the years, the Department of Health's discriminatory policy has also affected me financially", Argento said.
"Ohio's policy causes me problems here in the US, as well as in Italy, my family's homeland", Argento said in a statement.
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