Attorney General Gentner Drummond has submitted a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, asserting that Oklahoma's practice of documenting sex on birth certificates is constitutional. This move comes in response to a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which deemed Oklahoma's refusal to amend sex designations to align with an individual's gender identity as unconstitutional.
Drummond contends that this decision conflicts with a prior ruling from the Sixth Circuit, which upheld a similar policy in Tennessee. He argues that the Tenth Circuit erred in determining that Oklahoma was discriminating based on transgender status.
"Nothing in the Constitution prohibits States from permanently documenting sex on a birth certificate. A newborn’s sex is an objective fact that has long been recorded and preserved in state records," states the brief filed by Drummond.
The filing further asserts that Oklahoma "does not guarantee anyone a birth certificate matching gender identity, only a certificate that accurately records a historical fact: the sex of each newborn."
The petition requests clarification from the Supreme Court on whether the Equal Protection Clause mandates altering official birth certificates to reflect an individual's current gender identity.