Background
Three transgender individuals obtained Oklahoma state-court orders directing that the sex designations on their birth certificates be changed to match their gender identities. The Oklahoma State Department of Health denied their applications under Governor Kevin Stitt’s Executive Order 2021-24, which directed the agency to stop making birth-certificate amendments not authorized by Oklahoma law.
The plaintiffs sued state officials in federal court on due-process and equal-protection grounds. After the federal district court dismissed the case, the Tenth Circuit affirmed dismissal of the due-process claim but revived the equal-protection claim. The U.S. Supreme Court later vacated that decision for reconsideration in light of United States v. Skrmetti. The Tenth Circuit then certified three state-law questions asking whether 63 O.S. § 1-321 prohibits sex-designation changes and whether the statute now or ever permitted such changes, including changes based on gender identity.
The Court’s Holding
The Oklahoma Supreme Court answered that § 1-321, as amended by subsection (H), prohibits changing the sex designation on an Oklahoma birth certificate. The court reasoned that subsection (A) permits amendments only as authorized by the vital-statistics statutes or implementing regulations. Those provisions authorize specified changes involving names, paternity, surnames, and errors in nonmedical information, but do not authorize changing a sex designation.
The court also held that § 1-321 has never permitted sex-designation changes and has never permitted such changes based on gender identity. According to the court, the statute’s limiting language has existed since 1963, and the health department’s past practice of complying with court-ordered changes could not override the statutory text. The court treated the 2022 and 2026 amendments as clarifying existing law, with the 2026 version expressly barring amendments that display gender identity or a nonbinary designation.
Key Takeaways
- Oklahoma birth certificates may be amended only in the circumstances authorized by the governing statutes and health-department regulations.
- Section 1-321 does not authorize changing a birth certificate’s sex designation from male to female or from female to male.
- The court held that Oklahoma law has never authorized sex-designation changes based on gender identity, notwithstanding the state’s prior administrative practice.
Why It Matters
The decision supplies the Tenth Circuit with authoritative answers on Oklahoma law that may affect whether the federal plaintiffs have standing and whether relief from the governor’s executive order could redress their injuries. If the statute independently bars the requested amendments, invalidating the executive order alone would not require the state to issue revised birth certificates.
Justices Combs and Winchester dissented, arguing that the court should have declined certification because the Tenth Circuit could interpret the statutory text itself. Justice Gurich also dissented.