TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Jun 26, 2023

A federal judge last week dismissed a lawsuit brought by a group of Tennessee-born transgender plaintiffs hoping to compel the state to change the sex designations on their birth certificates. The plaintiffs had sought to overturn a 1977 law that generally prohibits such changes, the Tennessean reports. The group, represented by Lambda Legal, argued that the law discriminates against transgender people and leads to possible harassment and violence when birth certificates do not match gender identities. U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson wrote in his decision that while there are varying definitions of "sex," the term "has a very narrow and specific meaning" for the purpose of birth certificates: the "external genitalia at the time of birth." Read Richardson's opinion.