A Montana law requiring a court order and a sex-change surgery for transgender individuals to change their legal sex on their birth certificates has been struck down.
Montana’s law from 2021 requires that trans people receive sex-change surgery and a court order before the Montana Department of Health and Human Services can change their sex on their birth certificates. Although the law was temporarily blocked by a judge, Montana health officials issued a permanent rule in Sept. 2022 requiring sex-change surgery to change legal sex. (RELATED: Dem Gov Signs Executive Order Mandating Sex Change Coverage For State Employees)
Judge Michael Moses of the 13th Judicial District Court declared the law unconstitutional in a Monday ruling, ABC News reports. The judge also said the state’s health department showed a “flagrant disregard” after multiple temporary restraining orders. The court had previously issued an order requiring Montana to return to its previous guidelines for changing legal sex.
Effective immediately, Montana has banned changing the gender on your birth certificate illegal via executive fiat.
This is a deliberate defiance of a court order saying they had to allow transgender people to have correct documents.
I hurt for Montana transgender people today. pic.twitter.com/zKHQtwohlY
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) September 12, 2022
The American Civil Liberties Union’s Montana affiliate filed a lawsuit in July 2021 challenging Montana’s law regarding name changes for the state’s transgender-identifying residents. The legal group argued that the state’s law “invades the privacy of transgender Montanans.”
“An individual’s gender identity and medical treatment are intensely personal and private. The Act requires public review of a person’s gender identity and medical treatment in order to amend an important government document,” the lawsuit alleged.
Republican Montana Governor Greg Gianforte recently signed a bill defining “sex” as either male or female. The governor has also signed a law banning sex changes for minors in the state.