(WKBN) – The Ohio Supreme Court will hear the case of a person who was denied an application to change the sex marker on their birth certificate.

The case surrounds a law that prohibits probate courts from changing sex on birth certificates. The changes were allowed before the Ohio Department of Health reassessed its interpretation of an Ohio law granting the court jurisdiction to do so.

The law was reinterpreted sometime after 2015, according to court documents and new guidance was issued by the Ohio Department of Health soon after a transgendered person applied for the sex marker change.

In 2021, a person applied to have their sex and name changed on their birth certificate in Clark County. The name change was granted but the sex marker was denied. The probate court there said they lacked the authority to change the sex marker. A lower court agreed, saying that the state allows for a “correction” and does not expressly allow “changes.”

The lower court said that unlike other statutes that allow the probate court to change information on one’s birth certificate due to changes that occur in life, such as the person’s name or parent’s names after adoption, the probate court found that nothing in Ohio’s law specifically granted the probate court authority to issue a change of the sex marker, unless it was originally made in error.”

The applicant has appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court and the panel has accepted the case. A hearing date has not been set as records are being transferred from the lower court.