Transgender woman sues Tennessee for refusing to update driver’s license to match birth certificate

A transgender woman in Tennessee has sued over the state’s refusal to change the sex marker on her driver’s license, even though her Illinois birth certificate reflects her gender identity.

The Knox County woman, identified in her legal complaint only as Jane Doe, says the state has violated her constitutional rights. According to Tennessee news station WVLT, the lawsuit names Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and state Department of Safety and Homeland Security Commissioner Jeff Long as defendants.

Lee signed a 2023 law that defines sex throughout state law based on anatomy and genetics at birth. The state subsequently adopted a driver’s license policy barring transgender people from updating their sex markers to reflect their gender identities.

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Doe amended her Illinois birth certificate to identify her as female, but a Knox County driver’s license office refused to update her Tennessee license. “She was told due to [a Tennessee law] that she would be unable to have her driver’s license reflect her sex,” the lawsuit states.

Before the policy change, Tennessee allowed people to update their gender markers with documentation that “necessary medical procedures to accomplish the change in gender are complete,” according to Fox affiliate WZTV.

In the lawsuit, Doe says she carries a passport that identifies her as female and uses it as official ID whenever possible. But she is “forced to disclose her transgender status whenever she shows a third-party her drivers license,” according to the lawsuit. The complaint says that disclosure exposes her to “discrimination, harassment and violence based on her status as a transgender woman.”

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The state’s refusal violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit alleges. That amendment prohibits states from depriving people of due process or denying them equal protection under the law. The complaint says Tennessee’s refusal to recognize her amended Illinois birth certificate also violates the “Full Faith and Credit” clause of Article IV of the Constitution.

Tennessee has faced earlier challenges to its driver’s license policy. The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee filed a lawsuit in 2024 challenging the restrictions.

Lee has signed several anti-transgender laws during his tenure as governor, including a law allowing school employees to misgender and deadname students and the measure redefining sex. In April, the state Senate also passed legislation that advocates warned would effectively create a registry of transgender patients by requiring clinics and insurers to submit detailed information about their care, including prescriptions, treatment timelines, and demographic data, for reports to lawmakers. The state said the reports would contain de-identified data, but advocates raised concerns that patients could still be identified.