Montana sued over refusal to allow transgender people to change sex on birth certificate

Two transgender people sued the state of Montana in a class action lawsuit on Thursday, because they were not allowed to change the sex on their birth certificates to reflect their new ones. 

A rule from the Montana Department of Public Health forbids people from amending their birth certificates and other public documents to reflect a change in gender, even if they undergo sex change operations. 

The lawsuit challenges the DPH rule, along with a state senate bill that explicitly states that “sex” is binary, and a similar rule from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. Both plaintiffs claim their privacy has been violated as a result of the law, along with their right to equal protection under the law.

“After finally being able to live my life openly as the woman I know myself to be, I am frustrated that my birth state, Montana, is forcing me to carry around a birth certificate that incorrectly lists my sex as male,” plaintiff Jessica Kalarchik said in a statement reported by the Hill. “I am being forced to use a birth certificate that is inaccurate and that places me at risk of discrimination and harassment whenever I have to present it. I live my life openly as a woman, I am treated as a woman in my daily life, and there is no reason I should be forced to carry a birth certificate that incorrectly identifies me as male.”

Kalarchik currently resides in Alaska, according to a court filing, but was born male in Butte, Montana. The other transgender woman has remained anonymous. 

The state Public Health department does allow changes to a person’s birth certificate in the cases of “a scrivener’s error or a data entry error” or if the individual’s sex was “misidentified on the original certificate.” The misidentification must be proven through chromosomal, DNA or genetic tests that “identify the sex of the individual,” and a correction affidavit must be presented.

Four states other than Montana have banned changing sex or gender on one's birth certificate, according to the pro-LGBT Movement Advancement Project: North Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.