INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana has filed a class action lawsuit challenging Gov. Mike Braun’s executive order that restricts transgender people from updating gender markers on birth certificates.
Executive Order 25-36, signed on March 4, follows a similar order by Pres. Donald Trump, which blocks new passports for trans and nonbinary Americans.
The lawsuit filed Friday challenges the order’s definition of “sex” and “gender” as “immutable characteristics determined on the basis of individual’s biology at the time of conception.”
According to the ACLU, Braun’s order has since been used by the Indiana State Department of Health to deny processing gender-marker changes previously approved by courts.
“People born in Indiana can receive new birth certificates after a name change or with the name of their new parents after an adoption and have, in the past, been able to receive gender marker changes after a court order,” the ACLU said in a release.
The suit also claims the order violates privacy rights by “forcing them to disclose their transgender status” and represents discrimination for the person’s sex and transgender status.
The order contravenes the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which says, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States … nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Ken Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana, said to deny these changes solidifies discrimination against transgender people.
“Transgender Hoosiers have a right to accurate birth certificates to live safely and authentically,” he said. “Court-ordered changes to birth certificates are common for a number of reasons, and to deny trans people the right to change these important documents is discrimination.”
A copy of the full complaint is attached below.
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