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Indiana: Court Orders Gender Change On Birth-Cert Of Transgender Man In the US, the Transgender Law Center celebrated the decision issued last month by the Indiana Court of Appeals, recognizing the legal change of gender of a transgender man. The decision reversed a lower court ruling that had denied the request because no Indiana statute addresses courts’ authority to issue such orders. The Transgender Law Center represented the man, known in court filings only as “John 54 EILE Magazine
Doe,” along with the pro bono assistance of the law firm of Faegre Baker Daniels. “I’m so relieved. My birth certificate will finally show who I really am. Privacy is very important to me, and having a birth certificate that listed my sex as female was kind of scary – it could have outed me at any time and I never knew when someone might discriminate against me, or even try to hurt me, if they found out I’m transgender. I’m really grateful to Transgender Law Center for taking on my case,” said Doe.
the common-sense principle that courts everywhere have the authority to issue orders recognizing a person’s legal gender. That’s simply part of what courts do, regardless of whether a particular statute gives them that specific authority.”
Doe, a 25-year old African American man, was assigned the sex of female at birth, but has long identified and lived as a man. He successfully changed several of his identification documents to reflect his male gender, but when he attempted to change Transgender Law Center Legal the gender marker on his Director Ilona Turner added, Indiana birth certificate in 2012, the state Department of “We’re thrilled we were able Health informed him that he to win this victory for our would need to obtain a court client, which will also benefit order recognizing his change transgender people throughout of gender before they would Indiana as well as across the update the gender marker on country. This decision confirms his birth certificate. He filed a