ACLU of Montana challenges law defining the word ‘sex’ in state code as only male or female
The ACLU of Montana has filed a lawsuit challenging a law that defines the word “sex” throughout state code as either male or female, based on a person’s biology at birth. The plaintiffs argue the law denies legal recognition and protections to people who are gender non-conforming.
The plaintiffs — a transgender man, a two spirit Native American, a nonbinary person, an intersex individual and a nurse practitioner — also moved for a summary judgement in Monday’s filing in state court in Missoula, asking for the law to be declared unconstitutional.
Republican lawmakers who supported the bill “seem to think they can simply legislate away the diversity of Montana’s residents,” Akilah Deernose, the executive director of the ACLU of Montana, said in a statement.
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The ACLU lawsuit argues the definitions of male and female in Montana’s law are “scientifically imprecise and erroneous.”
The law defines a female as having XX chromosomes, and a reproductive and endocrine system that produces or would produce ova, or eggs. Plaintiff Linda Troyer, a nurse practitioner, argues the definition of female is scientifically incorrect because females are born with all the eggs they will ever have, do not “produce” them, and therefore she does not fall under the definition of female.
Male is defined as having XY chromosomes and a biological system that produces or would produce sperm.
The law, which took effect Oct. 1, also says anyone who would fall under the definition of either male or female, “but for a biological or genetic condition,” would be classified under their initial determination of male or female at birth.
A plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, said it was clear lawmakers didn’t understand what it means to be intersex, the ACLU statement said.
For thousands of years, Indigenous communities have recognized people who are two-spirit — neither male nor female — said Dandilion Cloverdale, another plaintiff, but Montana’s law does not recognize that gender identity.
Cloverdale has a federal passport listing their gender identity as “X,” or nonbinary, and a California birth certificate that identifies them as nonbinary, but Montana requires them to identify as either male or female before obtaining a state identification, the complaint states.