Akilah Lane

A district court judge has ordered the state health department to rescind a rule that bars transgender residents from amending the gender marker their birth certificates. The health department is defying that order.

The state health department has enacted an emergency rule to restrict transgender Montanans from amending the gender marker on their birth certificates. The move clashes with a court order that blocks a new law aimed at regulating the process.

Two transgender Montanans are suing the state over a new law that restricts who can amend the gender marker on their birth certificate. It’s the latest of nearly a dozen lawsuits over policies passed during the 2021 Montana Legislature.