A federal judge in Michigan has refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a group of transgender people against Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson.

The six trans people and the ACLU are claiming their constitutional rights are being violated.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds found that the plaintiffs raised a cognizable claim that their constitutional rights to privacy are being violated by a state policy that makes it difficult or impossible to change the gender recorded on their driver's licenses.

Emani Love, Tina Seitz, Codie Stone and three other trans people claim that the under the policy promulgated by the state, the ability to change the gender on a driver's license is denied them.

According to the Michigan Secretary of State's office

Information listed on a person's driver's license or ID card in Michigan must match the information on the applicant's birth certificate

Hence a transgender person is required to have their birth certificate amended before aorrecting the gender on the driver's license or ID. But two of the plaintiffs were born in Ohio and one in Idaho, so amending the gender on the birth certificate is not possible for them. Another was born in South Carolina, where a change of that sort would require a court order. And for the two born in Michigan, amending the birth certificate would require complete surgery, for which they have no current need nor can afford.

They are forced to carry and show to others a basic identity document that fails to reflect an essential aspect of personhood – their gender.

Denying Plaintiffs and other transgender people a driver's license that matches their gender identity and lived gender results in the routine disclosure of their transgender status, as well as their medical condition and treatment, to complete strangers.

--ACLU attorneys

State lawyers argued that the policy serves the state's interests of

maintaining accurate state identification documents to...promote effective law enforcement by keeping...the information on the license consistent with other state records describing the individual.

The Policy bears little, if any, connection to Defendant's purported interests and even assuming it did, there is no question that requiring an amended birth certificate to change the sex on one's license is far from the least restrictive means of accomplishing the state's goals.

Indeed, as Plaintiffs point out '[b]ecause of the Policy, the sex listed on [their] licenses fails to match their appearance and the sex associated with their names.' In this way, the Policy undermines Defendant's interest in accurately identifying Plaintiffs to promote law enforcement.

--Edmunds

The US State Department does not require alteration of the birth certificate in order to change the gender on a passport, but rather only requires a doctor's certification verifying that a gender transition either had been completed or is taking place.

By permitting us to have our day in court, the judge recognizes that being transgender and living in accordance with your gender identity is a serious, life-altering decision and that Michigan's harmful and unworkable ID policy needs to be critically examined.

--Seitz