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The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
Last week, a federal appeals court panel said that the State of Tennessee is not unconstitutionally discriminating against people who want to change the biological sex listed on their birth certificates.
The three-judge panel ruled 2-1 in an appeal brought before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court with Judge Jeffrey Sutton writing for the majority in the decision that upholds a district court ruling from last year.
Sutton wrote, “There is no fundamental right to a birth certificate recording gender identity instead of biological sex” and that the law in Tennessee “long predates medical diagnoses of gender dysphoria.”
The four Tennessean plaintiffs — who are male but say they are women — were unable to show that the state’s law was created due to discrimination against those living with gender confusion.
The plaintiffs sought to change the more than 50-year-old state law to accommodate the changing of sex designations on birth certificates based on a person’s declaration of their preferred gender identity alone. Only eleven states currently allow such a change.
The plaintiffs had argued in court filings that sex is not determined by the external genitalia that one is born with but instead is defined by one’s “gender identity” which they stated is “a person’s core internal sense of their own gender.”
In the lawsuit, which was first filed in federal court in Nashville in 2019, the plaintiffs said that the state’s prohibition makes gender-confused Tennesseans targets of harassment when they have to produce a birth certificate that is at odds with their chosen outward gender presentation.
Judge Helene White, in her dissenting opinion, agreed with the plaintiffs who are being represented by Lambda Legal.
While a few states allow for the changing of sex on a birth certificate, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has said that the decision on how to handle such issues should be up to individual states.
“While other states have taken different approaches, for decades Tennessee has consistently recognized that a birth certificate records a biological fact of a child being male or female and has never addressed gender identity,” said Skrmetti.
At one time, Tennessee law allowed for those who had sex change operations to legally change gender markers on state-issued IDs by providing proof of the surgery. However, a new law that went into effect last July restricts such changes.
Carried by Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood-District 61) and Senator Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield-District 23), the legislation provides a legal definition of “sex” that must be used in all state codes and statutes. For the state’s purposes, the definition of “sex” is “a person’s immutable biological sex” and it is this definition that must be used all government-issued documents within the state.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
5 Responses
GOOD!!
Once again misogyny on the part of males. The outward appearance, of what these men believe a woman is, is incorrect. As a women I am more than my appearance or a feeling. I am a woman all the way down to my bones. If a building full of people burnt down, I would be able to tell who is female and who is male, not by appearance but by the very way the bone structure and pelvis is shaped and size. Can’t change how God made you. That why the word Transvestite is the right definition for these men- meaning the transition of ones vestment meaning outward appearance, since you can not change their
sex/gender.
It’s sad that we are having this conversation because it’s so simple:
Male – XY chromosome
Female – XX chromosome
Remember “Follow the science”? I guess it only applies when it fits the radical left’s agenda.
Not that long ago, men thinking they are women, and women thinking they are men, was considered a psychosis. It still is. By accepting their reality, we are denying the real reality, and enabling their psychotic behavior. Otherwise, where will it stop? Is pedophilia next?
I see it as a direct attack on the Church and traditional family that made our constitutional republic the greatest nation on earth.
John Adams is quoted as saying, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.”
Every cell in ones body determines what gender you are. You can change your pole for a hole, but not every cell. God made man and woman only, there is nothing in between. God also signed your cells. Within all of us our DNA says ” God Eternal Within The Body”. Our cells say ” Y-H-W-H.
VERY WELL SAID now all we have to do is explain this to the LIBERALS and all the rest of the bleeding hearts that are killing our country with this crap.