Overview
- This week the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles immediately ended the form-based process that let people change the gender marker on a driver’s license or state ID.
- The BMV said it will now record the sex listed on an individual’s birth certificate or passport rather than accept a request based on a person’s asserted identity.
- Ohio’s budget language enacted in June redefined “sex” in strictly biological terms and said “gender identity” cannot be used as a basis for identification.
- Transgender Ohioans who want matching state IDs must first change the sex on their birth certificate, a step that can be limited by local court rules and may be hard or impossible for many people.
- Equality Ohio denounced the move and vowed legal and political fights, and reporters note the change follows actions in other states and sits alongside unresolved federal rules on passport gender markers.