transgender

A policy to restrict health care for transgender youth has been revived in the Montana Legislature after failing to pass two years ago. More than 100 people testified on the merits of the bill during a marathon hearing Friday.

Transgender people who live in the rural U.S. often face a certain type of medical inequity: a general lack of education about trans-related care among small-town health professionals who might also be reluctant to learn.

The Tuesday ruling leaves transgender advocates and the state health departments in another legal standoff.

Montana’s Department of Health and Human Services filed a petition asking the state Supreme Court to halt a district judge's ruling ordering the state health department to update gender markers on birth certificates.

The agency had previously said it would continue to bar document changes for transgender people despite a verbal court ruling.

A district court judge has ordered the state health department to rescind a rule that bars transgender residents from amending the gender marker their birth certificates. The health department is defying that order.

The rule, which puts Montana among the strictest states in the nation, effectively bars transgender people from changing the sex on their birth certificates.

The emergency rule, enacted in May, bars transgender residents from amending the gender markers on their birth certificates unless they have medically transitioned. About 100 people Thursday spoke in opposition.

The emergency rule skirts a recent order from a Billings district court judge.

A Yellowstone County district court judge has temporarily blocked a new state law that restricts the process for changing the gender marker on a birth certificate.