A rule that bans transgender people in Montana from changing the gender marker on their birth certificates and driver’s licenses will be temporarily blocked following a state judge ruling.
District Judge Mike Menahan ruled Monday that the ban would be blocked while the case is in court.
According to state law it is transgenders born in Montana are not allowed to change the gender designation on their birth certificate, and transgender people are not allowed to change the gender on their driver’s license without an amended birth certificate.
Two transgender women filed the suit in April on behalf of themselves and others who have been unable to obtain documents “that accurately reflect their gender,” according to the complaint.
Protesters gather on the steps of the Montana State Capitol in Helena, Montana, in March 2021. (Thom Bridge/Independent recording via AP, file)
The state had argued that sex is binary, male or female, and that being transgender is not a protected class of people whose constitutional rights to privacy could be violated.
Menahan said that at this point in the lawsuit it was not necessary to determine whether transgender Montanans constitute a special class based on their transgender status, and disagreed with the state’s argument that discrimination on the basis of transgender status is not discrimination on based on their transgender status. sex.
Transgender rights activists hold signs as they march through the University of Montana campus in Missoula, Montana in May 2023. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, file)
“If the challenged state actions discriminate against transgender individuals on the basis of their transgender status, they necessarily also discriminate on the basis of sex,” he wrote.
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The ruling comes days after the Montana Supreme Court temporarily… state law banning transgender surgeries for minors, saying the law likely violates Montana’s constitutional right to privacy.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
