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A lawsuit filed Tuesday states that a North Carolina statute requiring sex reassignment surgery as part of establishing transgender people's identities is discriminatory and does not follow most states and medical organizations, the Associated Press reported.
The lawsuit was filed in North Carolina's Middle District Court on behalf of an adult and two minors by three law firms. Lilith Campos, the adult plaintiff, is wrongly identified on her birth certificate as male, the lawsuit said. Another plaintiff, a young woman identified as M.D., is wrongly identified on her birth certificate as male. The third plaintiff, a young man identified as C.B., is wrongly identified on his birth certificate as female.
"For transgender persons, the sex designation on their original birth certificate is inaccurate because they were assigned the incorrect sex at birth. Correcting the sex designation on their birth certificate is critically important for transgender people," the lawsuit says. "Indeed, few things are as essential to one's personhood and regular interaction with the world as being able to accurately present one's identity to the world."
Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, Mark Benton, assistant secretary of public health, and Clarlynda Williams-Devane, state registrar and director of the N.C. State Center for Health Statistics, are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, an attorney for Lambda Legal, said the requirement is "antiquated" and points out the lawsuit says 34 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico allow people to change the sex designation on their birth certificate to accurately show their sex without needing surgery.
"Ultimately, this lawsuit is about the ability of people to be recognized for who they are," he said. "To not be outed by a document and to protect their privacy."
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
The lawsuit seeks to have the state to declare the surgical requirement unlawful, and for North Carolina to be require to provide accurate birth certificates to transgender people born in the state without the need for surgery.
Campos, the adult plaintiff, has encountered employment discrimination, according to Gonzalez-Pagan. Her employer doesn't provide coverage for gender-affirming care in the business' health insurance plan, which prevents her from getting the surgery required by the state, he said.
"As a trans woman, having incorrect documentation makes me feel like a second-class citizen because I am denied the same rights as the rest of the population. It just makes me feel like I am 'less than' before the eyes of the state," Campos said in a news release.
C.B. has witnessed classmates being singled out for bullying, while M.D. was playing on a softball league until her county told her she couldn't play on a girls team because her birth certificate didn't reflect who she is, Gonzalez-Pagan said.
The lawsuit also points to a contradiction in state regulations. North Carolina does permit transgender people to correct their sex designation on their driver license and state identification cards to accurately reflect their sex without a requirement to undergo a surgical procedure.
Also, the lawsuit says the state's requirement for surgery is inconsistent with mainstream medical organizations, such as the American Medical Association.
"North Carolina's Surgical Requirement is not supported by any compelling, important, or even legitimate government interest," the lawsuit says.
