This story is published by arrangement with The Associated Press. May not be republished without express permission of The Associated Press.

HELENA (AP) — A Montana state judge heard arguments Thursday on policies that prevent transgender people from changing their gender names on birth certificates and driver’s licenses.

U.S. District Court Judge Mike Menahan did not immediately rule on the request for a preliminary injunction to block those bans while the case moves through the courts.

“We are here today to challenge what is the latest manifestation of these (state) defendants’ singular obsession with singling out transgender Montanans for unequal treatment and discrimination,” said Alex Rate, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in Montana.

The case was filed in April by two transgender women on behalf of themselves and others who were unable to obtain documents “that accurately reflect their gender,” the complaint says.

A state rule prevents transgender people born in Montana from changing the gender name on their birth certificate. Another policy prevents transgender residents from changing the gender on their driver’s licenses without an amended birth certificate — which they can’t get if they were born in Montana.

Birth certificates and driver’s licenses are needed to apply for a marriage license, a passport, vote or even buy a hunting license, Rate said, and any time a transgender person needs to present a document who do not accurately reflect their gender, are forced to “light up” as transgender.

The state argued that gender is binary, either male or female, and that being transgender is not a protected class of people whose constitutional privacy rights could be violated.

“The right to privacy does not include the right to substitute an objective fact of biological sex on a government document,” Assistant Attorney General Alwyn Lansing argued for the state.

The hearing is the latest salvo in a series of laws, rules and legal challenges related to efforts by Montana Republicans to limit the rights of transgender residents. The state has used various justifications to prohibit changes to identification documents, including the need for accurate statistical records or the assertion that one’s biological sex cannot be changed, even though one’s gender identity can.

“The state cannot articulate any legitimate interest in restricting access to accurate identification documents, let alone a compelling one,” Rate said.

In late 2017, under Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, the state health department implemented a rule that allows people to change the gender on their birth certificate by signing an affidavit.

In 2021, Montana’s Republican-controlled Legislature and Republican Governor Greg Gianforte implemented a law that would prevent transgender people from changing the gender on their birth certificate without undergoing surgery. That law was declared unconstitutionally vague because it did not specify what surgery was required. The state was ordered to revert to the 2017 rule.

However, in response, the health department — now under Republican leadership — adopted a rule that says no one can change the gender on a birth certificate unless it’s to correct a clerical error.

The Montana Legislature passed a law in 2023 that defines the word “sex” in state law as only male or female and is based on a person’s assigned sex at birth. That law defining “sex” was overturned as unconstitutional because its title didn’t accurately explain its purpose, but the ACLU says the state still uses it to set driver’s license policy.

The ACLU asked Judge Menahan to temporarily block the rule and policy and order the state to reinstate the 2017 rule that allowed transgender people to change the gender name on their birth certificate by filing an affidavit.

Montana is one of seven states that do not allow people to change the gender on their birth certificate. Twenty-five states allow it, including 15 that offer an option to list male, female, or X. A dozen states allow birth certificate changes following gender-affirming surgical procedures, according to the Project to Advance the Movement.

Thirty states allow people to change their gender on their driver’s license. Montana is among 16 states with what MAP calls a “burdensome process.” Four states do not allow a person to change their gender on their driver’s license.

In 2023, Montana lawmakers passed a bill blocking gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. That law was temporarily blocked in September 2023 – just before it took effect. The judge said it was likely unconstitutional and would harm the mental and physical health of gender-dysphoric minors, rather than protect them from experimental treatments, as supporters said it would.

The judge also found that the legislative record in the health care bill was “full of animus for transgender people.” The state appealed the preliminary injunction to the Montana Supreme Court, which has yet to rule.