08/24/2026
Do you represent a organization or group appalled by the removal of the gender designation form from the BMV? Sign on here, letter text both below and in the link: https://forms.gle/iPB723ECPg7jmfcQ9
To:
Ohio BMV Interim Director: Benjamin B. Suver
Ohio BMV Assistant Director: Dan Fitzpatrick
Ohio BMV Registrar: Charles L. Norman
Ohio Department of Public Safety Director: Andy Wilson
Ohio BMV General Counsel: Curt Mayhew
All Ohio BMV regional office managers
Ohio Governor: Mike DeWine
All Ohio State Representatives
All Ohio State Senators
Ohio Civil Rights Commission and All Members
We the undersigned community groups and organizations, write in strong opposition to the August 14th, 2026, policy change by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV), in which the BMV has ended all use of the Declaration of Gender Change form (BMV2369), a form that has been used successfully and without cause for concern for 17 years to correct an individual’s s*x marker on their Ohio driver’s license or state identification. This change creates significant and unreasonable barriers to accessing legal identification for transgender Ohioans. These barriers will have compounding consequences for the health and well-being of thousands of Ohio residents.
Under the newly stated BMV policy, individuals will only be able to make corrections to the s*x marker on their driver’s license or state identification by producing an amended birth certificate. However, currently, in 82 of Ohio’s 88 counties, we have documented inconsistent policies by county courthouses that make changing one’s gender marker impossible in actual practice.
Under this new BMV policy, residents of these 82 counties, along with Ohioans who were born in states that do not allow birth certificate amendments, are essentially banned from making a change to the s*x marker on their BMV-issued identification.
This change will have lasting and dangerous impacts for thousands of transgender Ohioans. State-issued identification, such as a driver’s license, is necessary in accessing many of the basic needs that we as tax-paying citizens of Ohio- and as human beings with basic intrinsic dignity- deserve to access. Already, over one third of transgender individuals report living in poverty, 18% experience unemployment, 11% have been fired because of their identity, and one third of all transgender individuals have experienced homelessness. Access to correct identification is required to obtain employment, housing, and healthcare. Under this new policy, as fewer and fewer transgender Ohioans can access state-issued identification, these statistics will only grow more grim.
This policy will also severely limit trans Ohioans' basic access to public spaces, freedom of movement, safety, and peace of mind. As documented by the Williams Institute in 2026, anti-transgender hate crimes have nearly tripled since 2018. In a world where transgender individuals are increasingly vulnerable to violence, it is not safe to show an identification with a s*x marker that does not match your current presentation at a traffic stop, in a ride-share app, at airport security, or even at the pharmacy. Many transgender Ohioans will be forced to live in fear simply to leave their homes.
This policy does not solve any issue for Ohioans–instead, it creates a problem where one had already been solved. Transgender Ohioans have successfully used the Declaration of Gender Change form in Ohio for 17 years without issue. The use of this form does not harm or endanger any individual, institution, or organization. However, the choice to disallow its use will materially harm and endanger thousands of Ohio residents.
Transgender people have always existed and we always will. We do not require a government-issued identification to know that our identities are real, beautiful, and uniquely our own- just like any of our cisgender peers. However, trans people deserve access to the same basic rights and human dignity afforded all Ohio residents, such as access to basic needs such as employment, housing, and healthcare. Through the BMV’s new policy, transgender Ohioans will be cut off from these basic rights.
We, the undersigned, urge you to return to the previous state policy and reinstate the Declaration of Gender form.
Sincerely,
TransOhio
We the undersigned community groups and organizations, write in strong opposition to the August 14th, 2026, policy change by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV), in which the BMV has ended all use of the Declaration of Gender Change form (BMV2369), a form that has been used successfully and with...
