Transgender Birth Certificate

[Jazzy]

A federal appeals court heard arguments on Thursday over a decades-old Tennessee policy that does not allow transgender people to change the sex designation on their birth certificates.

The lawsuit was first filed in federal court in Nashville in 2019 by transgender Tennesseans who say Tennessee’s prohibition serves no legitimate government interest while it subjects transgender people to discrimination, harassment and even violence when they have to produce a birth certificate for identification that clashes with their gender identity. They say the policy is unconstitutional.

Attorney Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, with Lambda Legal, argued the case for the transgender plaintiffs before a three-judge panel of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday.

Birth certificates “are not mere records of historical facts or observations,” he said. “Birth certificates are critical and foundational identity documents.” And in the case of transgender people, those identity documents are incorrect, he argued. He noted that Tennessee does allow changes to birth certificates in cases where the sex is listed as “unknown” at the time of birth.

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Do you think the policy is unconstitutional? (Why/Why Not)

 

[Lamb]

I'm aware that transgenders don't like to hear about biology, but the birth certificates should confirm the biological body at birth.

 

[Josiah]

What scientifically, biologically IS at birth is what is at birth. IMO, it's very likely an MD can determine that biological reality. And it should not be legal for him/her to intentionally LIE about that on a legal document.

Funny how liberals go ON and ON about science - we need to abide by science.... but we need to ignore or reverse it when they don't like it, then someone's FEELINGS matters, not science.

Hey, at BIRTH, the doctor can apply science and put down on a legal document which sex the child is. It's an object, scientific fact. How people may FEEL about that is an entirely different issue - that doens't change the science.



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[Albion]

I'm aware that transgenders don't like to hear about biology, but the birth certificates should confirm the biological body at birth.

...and why SHOULDN'T the birth certificate record the facts as they were at birth??

Maybe there's an argument to be made about somebody who, later on, wants to be known as a person with a different sex; but it surely makes no sense for the medical staff at the time of a newborn's birth to record the sex as anything other than what the evidence shows it to be.

 

[tango]

...what the evidence shows it to be.

Exactly. Even the rather vague terms like "people assigned female at birth" doesn't work because they are people observed female at birth. It's not like the doctor recording the birth just randomly picks a gender and assigns it to the child, they observe the child and record what is observed.

 

[tango]

What scientifically, biologically IS at birth is what is at birth. IMO, it's very likely an MD can determine that biological reality.

I'm not sure medical qualifications are needed to determine that particular biological reality. I suspect you could grab just about anyone off the street and if they have one or more working eyes they could determine biological reality in 99% or more of cases.