A federal appeals court ruled 2-1 on Friday that Tennessee does not unconstitutionally discriminate against transgender people by not allowing them to change their sex designation on their birth certificates in the state.
“There is no fundamental right to a birth certificate recording gender identity instead of biological sex,” 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote for the majority in the decision upholding a 2023 district court ruling. The plaintiffs could not show that Tennessee’s policy was created out of animus against transgender people as it has been in place for more than half a century and “long predates medical diagnoses of gender dysphoria,” Sutton wrote.
Sutton said that “States’ practices are all over the map.” The judge says some states allow changes to the birth certificate with medical evidence of surgery while others require lesser medical evidence. At present time, only 11 states allow a change to a birth certificate based solely on a person’s declaration of their gender identity, which is what the plaintiffs are seeking in Tennessee.
