Ohio Birth Certificate Project Begins

Attorney looks to challenge state refusal to amend birth certificates

3/19/2004

[Northfield Center, OH] - Ohio is one of three states that currently refuse to change the sex designation on its birth certificates. (Idaho and Tennessee are the other two.) Ohio attorney Randi Barnabee, herself a transsexual, has developed a new project designed to challenge this state policy.

The result is the Ohio Birth Certificate Project. This project will involved lawsuits filed by transsexuals born in Ohio who are seeking to have the sex designations on their birth certificates changed. Barnabee would like to get as many people as possible involved in as many of Ohio's 88 county courts as possible. The ideal would be at least one applicant in each county.

In order to participate, an individual must:

1. Have been born in Ohio;
2. Have undergone a legal name change;
3. Be post-op M2F or F2M (post-top-surgery required only)
4. Want to correct your birth record.

The key is NOT where an individual lives now, but where he or she was born. A person who was born in Ohio but is living elsewhere currently should contact Barnabee to make arrangements for participation. General coordination is expected to be handled via a list serv for enhanced confidentiality as well as operational and communications security.

For those concerned about having their names associated with public court records, Barnabee noted the ability to file applications under pseudonyms like 'John Doe' or 'Jane Jones.'

"Although the court will have to know the name of the applicant, no one else need have access to that information," Barnabee said.

Barnabee anticipated that each case would cost approximately $7,500 to $15,000 if pursued individually. Court fees alone can run $100-$300 per jurisdiction. The project will require her to to make court appearances throughout the state, as well as in various district courts of appeal and, undoubtedly, to the Ohio Supreme Court. It will also require substantial assistance from her paid employees.

"Because we will realize some economies of scale by combining the efforts into one project with simultaneous actions, I estimate that I can do the project for a flat fee of $2,000 per person without going bankrupt in the process. This presumes, of course, that we have several participants," Barnabee noted.

Randi Barnabee can be contacted via email at