Two transgender women filed a lawsuit against the state of Montana and several state agencies on April 18 for a 2022 policy that prohibits people from changing the sex designation on their birth certificates.
The complaint challenges SB 280, which only allows the sex designation to be changed on birth certificates after a person’s sex has been altered through surgery.
The plaintiffs also challenged the Montana Motor Vehicle Division’s policy, which no longer permits transgender drivers to change the sex designation on their driver’s licenses. This was previously done with a letter from a physician.
According to the petition, all of these measures are “invalid, illegal, and unconstitutional.”
“I’m frustrated that my home state, Montana, is preventing me from having a birth certificate that accurately specifies my sex as female,” said Jessica Kalarchik, a transgender individual and one of the claimants in the case. “When I need to present a birth certificate, I am forced to use one that is inaccurate and exposes me to bias and harassment.”
The defendants, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Montana, and Nixon Peabody LLP, are also seeking a preliminary injunction to block the enforcement of these policies.
Akilah Deernose, senior director for the ACLU of Montana, stated, “Here in Montana, we cherish our right to privacy and to live our lives free from governmental intrusion. Recent years have shown the State of Montana has not learned its lesson, with courts consistently striking down discriminatory laws aimed at transgender Montanans.”
In February, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services announced that it would only consider applications for changing the sex designation on birth certificates in cases where a person’s gender was misidentified at birth or where incorrect sex designations were the result of a clerical error.
Under the terms of SB 458, which defines gender as being “determined by the biological and genetic evidence of male and female,” the agency stated it would not amend a birth document based on “gender transition, gender identity, or change of gender.”
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, a Republican, signed SB 458 into law last May. The governor’s office at the time stated that transgender individuals can “identify with whatever gender, but not sex, they wish.”
Shortly after its enactment in 2021, SB 280 also faced legal challenges. During the proceedings, Billings District Court Judge Michael Moses issued a preliminary injunction and ordered the state to refrain from enforcing the law.
