Montana to temporarily allow transgender people to change gender on birth certificates after previously saying it would defy judge's order

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

The controversy began in April, when District Judge Michael Moses temporarily blocked a law passed by the Republican-controlled legislature that would require transgender residents to undergo a surgical procedure and obtain a court order before being able to change the sex on their birth certificate. Moses said the law, which did not specify what kind of surgery would be required, was unconstitutionally vague.

Rather than returning to a 2017 rule that allowed transgender residents to file an affidavit with the health department to correct the gender on their birth certificate, as ordered by Moses, the state instead issued a rule this summer saying a person's gender could not be changed on a birth certificate at all, unless there was a clerical error.