'It's very invalidating': Federal appeals court rule there is no fundamental right to change sex on a birth certificate

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A federal appeals court panel ruled 2-1 Friday that a Tennessee law preventing changes to sex designations on birth certificates does not discriminate against transgender people, contrary to four plaintiffs' arguments in a 2019 lawsuit.

“There is no fundamental right to a birth certificate recording gender identity instead of biological sex,” 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote in the ruling, upholding a 2023 district court ruling. He added the plaintiffs failed to prove the law was created out of hostility for transgender people because it went into effect more than half a century ago. "The policy long predates medical diagnoses of gender dysphoria," he continued in the ruling.

However, Eli Givens, a nonbinary person and a Williamson County organizer for the Tennessee Equality Project, told News 2 not being able to change their gender on their birth certificate subjects them to harassment and even violence, and ...