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A rule that prohibits transgender people in Montana from changing the gender designation on their birth certificates and driver’s licenses will be temporarily blocked following a state judge’s decision.
District Judge Mike Menahan ruled Monday that the ban would be blocked while the case goes through the courts.
According to state law, transgender people Those born in Montana cannot change the sex designation on their birth certificate and transgender residents cannot change the sex on their driver’s license without an amended birth certificate.
Two transgender women filed the case in April on behalf of themselves and others who have been unable to obtain documents “that accurately reflect their gender,” the complaint says.
Protesters gather on the steps of the Montana State Capitol in Helena, Montana in March 2021. (Thom Bridge/Separate Registration via AP, file)
The the state had argued that gender is binary, either male or female, and that being transgender is not a protected class of people whose constitutional rights to privacy can be violated.
Menahan said it was not necessary at this point in the litigation to determine whether transgender Montanans constitute a special class based on their transgender status, and disagreed with the state’s argument that discrimination based on of transgender status is not discrimination on the basis of sex.
TRANS WOMEN ARE “JUST AS BIOLOGICALLY FEMALE” AS cis WOMEN,” states a transstate lawmaker.
Transgender rights activists hold signs as they march on the University of Montana campus in May 2023 in Missoula, Montana. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, file)
“If the challenged state actions discriminate against transgender people on the basis of their transgender status, they also necessarily discriminate on the basis of sex,” he wrote.
The ruling comes days after the Montana Supreme Court temporarily blocked a 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.
