Federal judge slams Ohio's policy against transgender birth certificate changes in ruling

[Eugene]

Source: Cincinnati Enquirer

Federal judge slams Ohio's policy against transgender birth certificate changes in ruling

Cameron Knight
Cincinnati Enquirer
Published 4:20 p.m. ET Dec. 16, 2020

A federal judge Wednesday blasted Ohio officials and the state's policy of preventing transgender people from changing the sex marker of their birth certificates.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Watson order that the policy be reversed immediately calling it unconstitutional. He said there was no rationale for the policy, which was apparently only put in place in 2016.

Watson said that that Ohio's policy closely resembles the policy struck down in the landmark LGBT equal protection case Romer v. Evans.

"This policy resembles the sort of discrimination-based legislation struck down under the equal protection clause in Romer v. Evans as nothing more than a policy 'born of animosity toward the class of person affected' that has 'no rational relation to a legitimate government purpose,'" Watson wrote quoting the earlier court ruling.

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Read more: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/12/16/judge-slams-ohios-policy-against-transgender-birth-certificate-changes/3928877001/

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Source: Associated Press

Court: Ohio must allow gender changes on birth certificates

By JULIE CARR SMYTH
December 16, 2020

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 was weighing an 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.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/ohio-2e9e639965c3938e11330eeea0ba31c6

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. Oh, dear.

I'll admit, this is the kind of thing I don't fully understand.

Here's my take:

A person is born. Their gender (based on their genitalia) is registered on the birth certificate. Okay, so they are a boy or a girl. At some point down the road that person says, "Oh, no, I identify with the other gender and I want to be officially that other gender." Okay.

I can see some problems about making the change official, and I can see an issue with some sort of reconciling a person's gender registration at birth and how that person identifies now. The only thing I think that is a problem is conforming a person's gender identification with the official records. Which I understand is a problem, because official record keeping isn't at all happy with change. Someone originally registered as male now wants to be registered as female, or the other way around. And another issue is those that prefer to be categorized as "other". Earlier today on the internet I was filling out some sort of personal information and was astounded to see that choice. I must say that I'm a (not sure if this is the correct term but I'll use it anyway because I think everyone reading this will understand) normative female, by which I mean I was born in a female body, and while I'm willing to complain about male privilege, I am quite happy with my body, have no desire whatsoever to be a male, and will proceed from there.

Which means on one level I don't understand transgender, only because I'm content with the body/gender I was born with. But I'm sufficiently imaginative that I can more or less get dissatisfaction with one's birth gender assignment. I do happen to know a transgender woman. I have no idea who she was before she became (and I'm making this up) Sally Smith, and I'm not a good enough friend to consider asking. I know her as "Sally Smith" and she's a wonderful person. I realize that her personal life is none of my business. Which is how it should be.

But the essential issue is, how do we deal with those who cross over? Who were born female and now are male, or the other way around. We need a simple institutional way to accommodate them. As well as those who identify as neither, which I'll admit leaves me very confused, but that is MY problem, not theirs. I'm the one that needs to change and understand, and their only thing is to give me the information I need to understand.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Reading my own post is making me think

that perhaps gender designation at birth simply isn't needed.

A birth certificate does not need to read "Baby Boy Smith" or "Baby Girl Jones", but perhaps simply "Baby". Whatever name the parents give is then written down. (I know a bit about this problem, as when my second son was born I was for several days very much up in the air about what his name should be.)

I so realize that the vast majority of parents will want their baby listed as "Baby Boy Smith" or "Baby Girl Jones" only with the designated first name, such as "Eric Smith" or "Ethel Jones". I'm guessing that gender ambiguity isn't something that arises early on, or at least not in the first two or three years of life. I do know some people who have children who are transgender, and I realize I've never thought to ask them at what point their children understood they were trans. Hmmm. I'm realizing this is a very complex topic that I only know a little bit about.

[CaptYossarian]

3. Simply add one word to the birth certificate.

PHYSICAL gender.

That way, everyone gets an option on their identity later in life. There could also be room for options in case of transsexual surgery/hormone treatment.

And keep Kim Davis away from all of this.