Xavier Hersom applied for and was denied a gender marker change on his birth certificate. He said DHHR’s policy has created yet another layer of difficulty for him as a transgender person living in West Virginia. The ACLU, the ACLU of West Virginia, and the Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic filed a federal lawsuit asking a court to declare West Virginia’s birth certificate policies relating to transgender people unconstitutional on behalf of Hersom and an another anonymous plaintiff.

This case concerns whether applying a public-accommodation law to compel a business that chooses to serve the public to provide wedding website design services without discriminating against a same-sex couple violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment.

In September of 2019, Peter Vlaming, a French teacher at West Point High School, refused to address a transgender boy in his class with he/him pronouns. Instead, the teacher avoided using pronouns when addressing the student, while continuing to use gendered pronouns when addressing everyone else. After several warnings, the school district told the teacher he needed to address the student with male pronouns (the same way he addressed other boys) or he would be fired. The teacher refused; the school district fired him, and Vlaming, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, filed a suit in state court arguing that the school district violated his free speech and free exercise rights under the Virginia Constitution and Virginia’s RFRA.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California and Rukin Hyland & Riggin LLP filed a lawsuit on March 21, 2019 on behalf of Oliver Knight, a 29-year-old transgender man who was denied surgery minutes before it was scheduled to take place based on the hospital’s religious beliefs, which do not recognize gender-affirming care.