The Montana Department of Health has conceded to a judge’s ruling temporarily allowing transgender people to change genders on their birth certificates after months of defiance.
Transgender Montana residents may obtain corrected birth certificates by submitting sworn affidavits to the health department, per an April ruling from Judge Michael Moses. Up until Monday, the state health department refused to follow his “vague” order.
The state said last week that it would defy a court order from Moses, halting a 2021 law that rolled back the ability for transgender people to change genders by filling out paperwork, a Department of Health and Human Services rule that was in effect since 2017.
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Moses wrote in his Monday ruling that the department engaged “in needless legal gymnastics to attempt to rationalize their actions and their calculated violations of the order,” according to the Associated Press.
“If defendants requires further clarification, they are welcome to request it from the court rather than engage in activities that constitute unlawful violations of the order,” Moses wrote.
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The ruling comes after Moses held a hearing on Sept. 15 clarifying his injunction of the state, which was requested by the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana.
“All that’s left is for the department to comply with the order, and if they don’t, the consequences are clear,” ACLU attorney Alex Rate, who is representing two transgender plaintiffs seeking to change their birth certificates, said.
