July 12 (Reuters) – A divided federal appeals court on Friday rejected a constitutional challenge to Tennessee’s decades-old policy of not allowing people born in the state to amend their birth certificates to reflect their gender identity.
A 2-1 panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held opens new tab that the U.S. Constitution did not require the Republican-led state to change the biological sex listed on the birth certificates of four transgender women born in Tennessee.
The state is among only a handful nationally that categorically bars individuals from amending the sex on their birth certificates.
Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton, writing for the majority, concluded that a lower-court judge rightly rejected the lawsuit, saying there was no fundamental right to a birth certificate recording gender identity instead of biological sex.