Do we have the right to change the designate the listing of our sex on our birth certificates or drivers licenses? The Montana Legislature says “no”, but transgender people say otherwise. And so did former Gov. Steve Bullock, who implemented a rule allowing that change on their birth certificate by signing an affidavit.
In the last Legislative Session, a law was passed outlawing such changes. That law was immediately challenge in court. Now, Helena District Judge Mike Menahan has blocked enforcement of that law until is runs its course in court. He ruled that, at this point in the litigation, it can’t be determined if transgender Montanans constitute a special class. The State argued that transgender status is not discrimination based on sex. The Judge disagreed.
The lawsuit was filed last April by 2-transgender women who say they’ve been unable to obtain documents that, they say, “accurately reflect their sex.” Plaintiff Jessica Kalarchik says she’s frustrated that, as a person living her life as a woman, her birth certificate and drivers license says otherwise.
At this point, the State says sex is binary…you’re either a man or a woman and that’s not a matter of privacy, protected un the the State Constitution.
Montana isn’t the lone ranger is this: 36-other states allow their citizens to change their sex on their drivers licenses…4-states do not.
