The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled 2-1 to uphold a decades-long Tennessee policy that prohibits changes to a person’s sex on their birth certificate to reflect their gender identity instead of their biological sex at birth.
The policy treats the sex listed on a birth certificate as a historical fact unchangeable by an individual’s transition to a different gender identity.
🚨BIG WIN for common sense
The Court of Appeals has upheld Tennessee law barring changes to one's sex on his or her birth certificate.
TN will continue to recognize that a birth certificate records a biological fact of a child being male or female.
➡️https://t.co/tBTNFidKl7 pic.twitter.com/Yv0Fbzq0oI
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) July 12, 2024
While the policy has been in place since 1977, in May 2023, Governor Bill Lee signed a bill, SB1440/HB0239, to officially amend the Tennessee code to apply biology-based definitions across all state statutes.
The legislation, which took effect on July 1, 2023, legally defines “sex” as a person’s “immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth and evidence of a person’s biological sex.”
That law sparked controversy and led to the birth certificate policy being challenged by four transgender Tennesseans who argued that the policy violates the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the U.S. Constitution.
The court, however, did not agree with the plaintiffs who attempted to connect the state’s 2023 law with the decades-long birth certificate policy.
Chief Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton delivered Friday’s majority opinion which was joined by Judge Amul R. Thapar.
In his opinion, Sutton said Tennessee has “considerable discretion in defining the terms used in their own laws and in deciding what records to keep” and that the state’s law “did not exceed that discretion.”
“Tennessee may decide how to use the word “sex” in government documents, and it may decide what facts to record in a government-owned record,” Sutton wrote.
Sutton also said that while the court “acknowledges” the plaintiff’s “frustration” with the 2023 law, “the reality is that the plaintiffs did not challenge that statute or any accompanying regulations in this case.”
“The new law also does not speak to the validity of the Volunteer State’s birth certificate amendment policy. That policy has been around for decades, and it’s the rare new law that retroactively establishes animus for a past law,” Sutton added.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti applauded the court’s ruling on Friday, saying, “Whether someone can change the sex on their birth certificate is a matter for each state to decide.”
“While other states have taken different approaches, for decades Tennessee has consistently recognized that a birth certificate records a biological fact of a child being male or female and has never addressed gender identity. We are grateful that the Court of Appeals agreed with the district court that any change in Tennessee’s policy can only come from the people of Tennessee,” Skrmetti added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
