INDIANAPOLIS - Today, the ACLU of Indiana filed a class action lawsuit challenging Governor Mike Braun’s efforts to deny transgender Hoosiers the ability to update the gender markers on their birth certificates.
On March 4, 2025, Govenor Braun signed Executive Order 25-36, which is modeled after a similar order signed by President Trump. The Executive Order unscientifically purports to define “sex” and “gender” as immutable characteristics determined on the basis of individuals’ biology at the time of conception. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of a putative class of persons affected by the Executive Order, challenges the Executive Order to the extent that it is being relied on by the Vital Records Division of the Indiana State Department of Health as justification for its failure to process gender-marker changes approved by Indiana courts. The named plaintiff is a transgender girl born in Indiana and currently residing in Ohio.
Birth certificates are a fundamentally important form of identification that may be relied on for a wide variety of purposes, including obtaining a driver’s license, opening a bank account, enrolling in school, and applying for public benefits. People born in Indiana can receive new birth certificates after a name change or with the name of their new parents after an adoption and have, in the past, been able to receive gender marker changes after a court order.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, asserts that the Executive Order violates the privacy rights of Hoosiers in the class by forcing them to disclose their transgender status to persons who might not otherwise be aware of that status, and represents discrimination on the grounds of both sex and transgender status, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
A copy of the complaint is available here.
Statement from ACLU of Indiana legal director Ken Falk:
“Transgender Hoosiers have a right to accurate birth certificates to live safely and authentically. Court-ordered changes to birth certificates are common for a number of reasons, and to deny trans people the right to change these important documents is discrimination.”
