Fowler et al. v. Stitt et al.

Lambda Legal filed a federal lawsuit seeking to allow transgender people to correct the gender marker on their Oklahoma birth certificates.

Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma on behalf of three transgender people born in Oklahoma – Rowan Fowler, Allister Hall, and one plaintiff identified by his initials, C.R.  The lawsuit was filed after Governor Stitt issued an Executive Order in late 2021, which state officials have invoked in denying transgender people’s applications to correct their birth certificates.  The current practice is a reversal of prior policy, which had permitted such corrections for years.  The lawsuit argues that the government’s actions violate equal protection, privacy, and liberty under the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the U.S. Constitution.  It also argues that forcing transgender people through their birth certificates to identify with a sex that conflicts with who they are violates their free speech rights under the First Amendment.

Lambda Legal has previously filed several other lawsuits successfully challenging the categorical denial of accurate birth certificates to transgender people, including in Kansas, Ohio, Idaho, and Puerto Rico, which resulted in transgender people being allowed to correct their birth certificates.