Helena, Montana — A Montana district judge has blocked state policies that prevented transgender individuals from changing the gender marker on their birth certificates without essentially any requirements on the basis that doing otherwise would be discrimination.
Judge Mike Menahan ruled that the policies, which required proof of gender-affirming surgery, violated constitutional rights to privacy and equal protection. Instead of ruling that transgender is a protected status, he argues that transgender discrimination is sex discrimination, and sex is already a protected class.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen criticized the decision and signaled plans to appeal, calling it “judicial overreach.”
For now, transgender residents in Montana can update their birth certificates without surgical requirements. Gender will remain fluid and every changing on the whims of whomever feels like changing.
This comes just after a Montana district court also blocked a law that banned gender affirming care and surgeries for minors. That decision was also based on the right to privacy, and was upheld by the Montana Supreme Court.
