Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita wants to block courts from authorizing gender identity changes on birth certificates, saying Tuesday he is intervening in cases where Hoosiers have asked trial courts to order the Indiana Department of Health to change the sex on an individual’s birth certificate to reflect their preferred gender identity.
In a press release, he deemed such changes to be “falsifying records.”
“We’re taking a stand not only for the rule of law but also for common sense,” Rokita said. “Indiana law requires birth certificates to reflect the historical, immutable fact of a child’s sex. One should have no more ability to change the listed sex on a birth certificate years after the fact than to change the newborn’s listed length or weight.”
Rokita also said the state has a clear interest in preserving its own method of issuing the certificates, adding that trial courts have ordered IDOH to change a newborn’s sex in dozens of instances.
The move comes after a March executive order from Gov. Mike Braun, which ended the state’s process from updating gender markers on state documents, specifically birth certificates and driver’s licenses.
The order also instructed state agencies to interpret and apply “sex” to mean “an individual human being’s immutable biological classification as either male or female” as determined at conception. It doesn’t acknowledge intersex Hoosiers.
Previously, individuals seeking to change their gender on a birth certificate were required to obtain a court order. The IDOH would then issue an amended birth certificate. Since the executive order, the Vital Records Division has stopped processing these changes.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a class action lawsuit in March challenging Braun’s order but didn’t have a new comment following Rokita’s release.
Indiana Legal Services said they help hundreds of Hoosiers a year change their name and/or gender markers but said also they do not have a statement at this time. The ILS provides free legal advice, information, representation and referrals on legal issues including gender marker changes.
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