Montana to allow transgender people to change birth record

After months of defiance, Montana’s health department said Monday it will follow a judge’s ruling and temporarily allow transgender people to change the gender on their birth certificates.

The judge issued a scathing order Monday morning saying health officials made “calculated violations” of his order, which had told them to temporarily stop enforcing a law blocking transgender people from changing their gender on their birth certificates unless they had undergone surgery.

District Court Judge Michael Moses said Monday he would promptly consider motions for contempt based on continued violations of his April order, which he clarified in a verbal order at a hearing on Thursday. Just hours after that hearing, the Republican-run state said it would defy the order and keep in place a rule that disallowed any changes to birth certificates unless they were due to a clerical error.