Montana judge deems defining sex in terms of only male or female unconstitutional – Washington Examiner
A Montana judge has ruled that a state law, which defined gender solely as either male or female, is unconstitutional. The judge stated that the law’s purpose was not clearly articulated, which led to the decision. This ruling came after members of the LGBT community filed a lawsuit against the bill that had been passed the previous year. They argued that the law denied legal protections to people whose gender identity did not conform to the traditional definitions of male or female.
A Montana judge deemed a law defining sex in terms of only male or female to be in violation of the state’s constitution since the legislation’s description did not clearly state its purpose.
Members of the LGBT community filed a lawsuit against the bill, which was passed last year, claiming it denied legal protections to people who did not fit into either male or female.
District Court Judge Shane Vannatta in Missoula struck down the bill — but not on the grounds that it ignored the protections of transgender and nonbinary individuals. Rather, she said it was unclear if the bill’s title was referring to “sex” as either sexual intercourse or gender. In addition, Vannatta stated that the bill’s title failed to indicate the words “female” and “male” in the bill’s body.
“The title does not give general notice of the character of the legislation in a way that guards against deceptive or misleading titles,” Vannatta wrote.
Sen. Carl Glimm (R-MT) sponsored the legislation in response to a 2022 court ruling in which a state judge said transgender people could change the gender listed on their birth certificates.
The bill looked to “provide a common definition for the word sex when referring to a human,” the text reads.
Sedan Southard, spokesman for Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT), told the Associated Press the governor stands by the law which legally defines what has always been the understanding of what a male and female are.
“Words matter. And this administration is committed to ensuring words have meaning, unlike this judge, who apparently needs a dictionary to discern the difference between a noun and a verb,” Southard said.
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Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana celebrated the ruling.
“Today’s ruling is an important vindication of the safeguards that the Montana Constitution places on legislative enactments,” Alex Rate, the group’s legal director, told the outlet.
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