NEWS / Ohio Supreme Court denies transgender woman’s request to amend birth certificate

The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio has effectively rejected an appeal by a transgender woman to challenge an earlier decision by lower probate court to deny her request to change the sex marker on her birth certificate.

According to cleveland.com, the Supreme Court was actually divided on the decision whether state law would allow Clark County Probate Court to change the sex marker on Hailey Adelaide’s birth certificate. Since the Supreme Court was unable to reach a majority decision, an earlier ruling by the Ohio 2nd District Court of Appeals to deny Adelaide’s request for the sex marker change was effectively upheld. The Court of Appeals held that an individual’s sex marker can only be changed if the sex identified at birth was recorded incorrectly.

Republican Justices Joseph T. Deters, R. Patrick DeWine, and Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy also argued that the case lacked “adversity” as there was no interest adverse to that of Adelaide. They also noted that neither the appeals court, nor the Supreme Court had judicial power to consider Adelaide’s appeal.

At the same time, Justice Patrick F. Fischer, a Republican, joined the courts 3 Democratic justices, Michael P. Donnelly, Melody Stewart, and Jennifer Brunner, in arguing that the District Court of Appeals and State Supreme Court both had authority to hear the case and that adversity was not an issue, which constituted a majority decision. However, only Justice Brunner argued in favor of overturning the probate court’s ruling to deny the sex marker change.

Justice Brunner argued that prior to 2015, Ohio probate courts did not have a problem granting sex marker changes to transgender individuals and that the change came about because of a Department of Health policy change. At the same time, she noted that the interpretation of the law on whether sex marker changes are permitted varies from county to county. In her opinion she also underscored that according to the law, birth certificates can be corrected when they are not properly and accurately recorded.

“This case raises substantial constitutional questions and is one of public and great general interest,” Adelaide’s lawyers Maya Simek and Chad M. Eggspuehler stated in the Supreme Court Notice of Appeal.

Hailey Adelaide was born in 1973 with a male name and sex marker on her birth certificate. She argued that she began to view herself as female starting at age 4. Having filed a petition to change her birth certificate sex marker with the probate court in 2021, Adelaide argued that the marker was incorrect because it did not consider how she would identify later in life. However, the probate court stipulated that the sex marker can only be corrected if it was incorrectly recorded at the time of birth. Since Adelaide was born with male genitalia, the court argued that the sex marker was recorded correctly.