Ohio has abruptly stopped allowing transgender residents to update the gender marker on their driver’s licenses and state identification cards through a process that had been available for 17 years, adding another bureaucratic barrier between transgender people and accurate identification.
The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles will no longer accept its Declaration of Gender Change form, which allowed applicants to update the sex designation on a license or state ID with certification from a medical or mental health professional. The form had been used since 2009.
Instead, the BMV says the marker on an Ohio driver’s license or identification card must now match the sex listed on a person’s birth certificate or passport.
“The BMV will record the sex that is stated on an individual’s birth certificate or passport as the sex that will be reflected on the Ohio driver license or ID card,” BMV spokesperson Lindsey Bohrer told the Toledo Blade.
A Policy Change With Little Warning
The change reportedly stems from language included in the state budget signed in June by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. LGBTQ+ advocates say the BMV implemented the new policy with little public notice.
Equality Ohio Executive Director Dwayne Steward called the abrupt change deliberate.
“Changing a policy this consequential overnight, without warning or transparency, is not an accident; it is a choice,” Steward said, accusing the state of making life more difficult for transgender Ohioans.
For transgender residents, simply switching to a birth certificate is not necessarily an easy workaround.
Ohio’s birth-certificate process has been tangled in years of litigation and inconsistent decisions by probate courts. In 2024, the Ohio Supreme Court failed to reach a controlling decision in a case involving a transgender woman seeking to correct her birth certificate, leaving a lower court’s denial in place.
That means a supposedly simple requirement to “change the birth certificate first” can become an entirely different legal obstacle.
More Than a Letter on a Card
Accurate identification matters far beyond the DMV counter. Driver’s licenses and state IDs are routinely presented when applying for jobs, renting housing, entering certain buildings, traveling, handling financial transactions, and navigating countless other everyday situations.
For transgender people, an ID that conflicts with their appearance or identity can also involuntarily disclose that they are transgender.
Dara Adkison, executive director of TransOhio, described mismatched identification as “intentional harm,” noting that it can effectively out transgender people whenever identification is requested.
Research and advocacy groups have similarly warned that inconsistent identity documents can increase exposure to discrimination, harassment, and violence.
Ohio’s move is part of a broader national push by Republican-led states to restrict transgender people’s ability to obtain identification reflecting their gender. Wyoming, for example, implemented similar restrictions earlier this year.
The paperwork may look mundane. The consequences aren’t.
For transgender Ohioans who spent years building lives with identification that accurately reflects who they are, the state has turned another routine government process into one more political battleground.
