Transgender Tennesseans want state’s refusal to amend birth certificates declared unconstitutional

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal appeals court heard arguments on Thursday over a decades-old Tennessee policy that does not allow transgender people to change the sex designation on their birth certificates.

The lawsuit was first filed in federal court in Nashville in 2019 by transgender Tennesseans who say Tennessee’s prohibition serves no legitimate government interest while it subjects transgender people to discrimination, harassment and even violence when they have to produce a birth certificate for identification that clashes with their gender identity. They say the policy is unconstitutional.

Last year, a federal judge dismissed the case, ruling that while there are varying definitions of “sex,” the term has a very narrow and specific meaning for the purpose of birth certificates in Tennessee: “external genitalia at the time of birth.”

Attorney Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, with Lambda Legal, argued the case for the transgender plaintiffs before a three-judge panel of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday.

Birth certificates “are not mere records of historical facts or observations,” he said. “Birth certificates are critical and foundational identity documents.” And in the case of transgender people, those identity documents are incorrect, he argued. He noted that Tennessee does allow changes to birth certificates in cases where the sex is listed as “unknown” at the time of birth.

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