This is part one of a two-part series examining how the state's jumble of statutes and court rulings impacts transgender people who need to change the gender marker on their birth certificates.
Transgender men and women can change the gender on their birth certificates in some Ohio counties, but not all of them.
A federal court told Ohio officials in 2020 that the state had to find a way for people who identify as transgender to change the gender markers on their birth certificates.
The Ohio Department of Health said it would file the changes if probate courts sent the orders and many of the courts did.
"That same day or shortly thereafter, the Ohio Supreme Court issued forms for us to use for the applications and the entries. So in '21, we started accepting the applications," said Cuyahoga County Probate Judge Laura Gallagher.
But there was no specific statute outlining the procedure for transgender individuals.
"There's a difference in the way counties are handling these," Gallagher said.
Some probate court judges relied on their authority to change typos on birth certificates, while other relied on the guidance that allows judges to amend birth certificates with the names of adoptive parents.
So when Hailey Adelaide wanted to correct the gender marker on her birth certificate in 2021, she gathered up the paperwork and submitted an application in Clark County.
Hamilton County Magistrate Rogena Stargel said courts require documents like an original birth certificate and for transgender people, the court requires a notarized affidavit.
"We do require that they have a letter from a therapist or a doctor or a counselor, nurse practitioner or a physician's assistant that indicates that the person is undergoing therapy treatment for gender dysphoria," Stargel said.
If Adelaide had been under the age of 18, she would have needed the consent of both parents. But Adelaide was in her 40s.
Clark County Probate Court Judge Richard Carey granted Adelaide's request for a name change, but wouldn't let her change the gender marker on the certificate.
Carey declined to participate in an interview with 星空无限传媒. He wrote in court documents that under his reading of the statutes, he doesn't have the power to change the gender of a person because they are transgender.
An appeals court ruled he didn't have to. And the Ohio Supreme Court washed its hands of the case last month without offering guidance in support or opposition.
"Now we're still in a situation where the Department of Health is requiring an order and some counties are issuing the orders and some counties aren't," Gallagher said.
Probate Court Judge John O'Diam in Greene County started issuing the requested changes in 2021, but has stopped since the ruling.
"I see where it's a huge problem for the public. It's not a problem that probate courts created. But now we got stuck with it. I mean, we look like the bad guys," O'Diam said.
So, that leaves Adelaide without her gender marker change, but it's not just Adelaide who can't get it done.
People in Montgomery, Miami, Champaign, Darke and Greene counties are in the same appeals court district as Clark County.
Many judges are no longer comfortable ordering the changes.
"It's not negative. It's not anti-transgender. It's just do we have the legal authority to do that or not? That's what's unclear," O'Diam said.
Few options remain to equalize access to gender marker changes. The one suggested by the Supreme Court seems like a non-starter 鈥� asking the Republican-controlled General Assembly to update the statute.
Gallagher said if that doesn鈥檛 happen, the Department of Health should issue clarification.
鈥淭hey were ordered by the federal court to figure this out and make it happen. And their answer was, 'we'll take orders from the probate court.' So if they're not getting orders from the probate courts, it seems as if maybe they should have an administrative process," she said.
The Department of Health declined an interview with 星空无限传媒. Officials said in an email that they don't have the authority to tell probate courts what to do:
"The Ohio Department of Health鈥檚 (ODH) process is that when we receive an order from a probate court to change the sex marker on a birth record, we comply.
"ODH, as part of the executive branch, does not have the legal authority to tell judges, part of the judicial branch, how to interpret existing statute. The federal case (Ray vs. McCloud) does not require ODH to institute a statewide standard for probate courts to follow.
"The statewide standard is the existing statute, passed by the General Assembly, and the case law around it."
Meanwhile, whether or not a person can get the change completed is dependent on their probate court judge. The judges and magistrates who 星空无限传媒 spoke to in Franklin, Hamilton and Cuyahoga counties say they're completing the requests. Many others are, too.
Franklin County Probate Chief Magistrate Kelly Green said there's nothing stopping them from completing the changes.
鈥淲hen that decision came down, we decided that we would still process birth corrections in the manner that we felt that they should be processed and our reading of the statute. And so that is going to continue," Green said.
People can contact or their county's probate court to find out their specific policy and find out which documents to collect.
Applicants born in Ohio can try in the county they live in, the county they were born in and the county their mother resided in at the time of their birth.
In the second part of the series, 星空无限传媒 speaks with Hailey Adelaide about how she "became Hailey," and how an uncomfortable situation in a medical office led her on the legal journey to try to fix the inequities in Ohio.
