Culture & the Family
Oklahoma judges: Men can be women
September 23, 2024
Ray Carter
Visit www.OklaJudges.com to learn more about your Oklahoma Supreme Court justices.
In numerous cases in recent years, Oklahoma judges have declared that men are women (and vice versa) and ordered that state documents, such as birth certificates, be altered.
On Aug. 2, Nathan Alexander Wylie petitioned the district court of Cleveland County to change his name to Alice Anne Wylie. The document shows that Wylie is 22 years old.
In his petition, Wylie said that “for over two years now I have not socially identified with the name Nathan nor the gender of Male. I believe my legal records should be updated to reflect as much.”
The petition noted that legislation signed into law in 2022 prohibits Oklahoma birth certificates from listing any gender other than male or female, prohibiting the use of a “nonbinary” designation. However, Wylie’s petition argued that the law therefore “reaffirms the authority to amend biological sex designations so long as the designation is limited to male or female.”
Wylie also argued that his 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the U.S. Constitution would be violated by refusal to change his name and gender identification on state documents.
On Sept. 9, District Judge Jeff Virgin issued a final order approving the name change and ordering that Wylie “should be designated as female on officials documents generated, issued or maintained by any agency of the State of Oklahoma, including those with the Oklahoma Department of Health, Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, Office of Management and Enterprise Services and the Division of Vital Statistics.”
Virgin’s order also declared “that Alice Anne Wylie is female and that any designation by Oklahoma agencies, and all Oklahoma political subdivisions or quasi-political subdivisions of Ms. Wylie being anything other than female is incorrect.”
Virgin is not the only Oklahoma judge to issue such an order.
Wylie’s petition, in arguing that Oklahoma law “permits gender marker changes on official documents,” stated that since December 2020 “dozens” of people with gender dysphoria have “acquired updated official state documents with corrected gender markers …”
On April 4, 2022, a similar case was filed in district court in Oklahoma County by Sarah Elizabeth Scovill, who asked the court to allow her to change her name to Elijah Leviathan Ian Scovill and to be designated as male on official state documents.
Scovill, who was 36 at the time, declared in her petition, “I need my name and gender marker to represent who I actually am—especially because I’m headed toward a lot of job searching in the near future. I’ve been going by my chosen name and correct pronouns for over two years now, but without documentation, I’m left vulnerable. Every introduction is a risky ordeal; whether I get called the correct name or whether I get humiliated is, right now, entirely up to the kindness of any stranger who learns my legal name. And not everyone is kind.”
On July 7, 2022, Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons issued an order changing Scovill’s name and requiring that Scovill be identified as male on official state documents.
Timmons’ order stated that Scovill “is male” and that any designation by Oklahoma agencies suggesting Scovill “is anything other than male is incorrect,” pursuant to medical and psychological documentation provided to the court.
On April 1, 2022, Kelcey Dawn Hardy petitioned the district court in Tulsa County to change her name to Kade Hardy and be designated a male on state documents. Hardy stated, “Since realizing that I am transgendered, that is I identify as male, I wish for my birth certificate and ID to reflect as such.” Hardy was 46 at the time.
On June 21, 2022, Judge Rebecca Nightingale issued an order changing Hardy’s name and declaring that Hardy “shall be designated as male on official documents generated, issued or maintained in the State of Oklahoma.”
On April 1, 2022, Jennifer Celeste Grove, then age 28, petitioned the district court of Tulsa County to have her name changed to Avery Ryan Grove and have the gender listed on her state documents changed to male.
Grove’s petition stated, “I am transitioning from female to male after receiving a gender dysphoria diagnosis from a licensed therapist. I do not identify as female but male and wish to make that change legal.”
On June 21, 2022, Judge Clifford Smith issued an order changing Grove’s name and ordering that the gender listed for Grove on state documents be changed to male.
On March 12, 2021, Edward Joseph Cizek III petitioned the district court in Tulsa County to change his name to Ria Sharon Cizek and change his gender to female on state documents.
In his petition, Cizek, who was then age 29, stated, “I would like my legal identity documents to reflect the name and identity that I use in day-to-day life. I also want to avoid being compelled to provide identity documents which open me up to possible harassment, discrimination, and other physical and/or emotional harm.”
On April 28, 2021, Judge Kelly M. Greenough issued an order authorizing the name change and declaring that Cizek “is female” and any designation on state documents suggesting otherwise “is incorrect,” ordering that all state documents now refer to Cizek as female.
On March 12, 2021, Jose Antonio Delgado petitioned the district court in Tulsa County to have his name changed to Luna Delgado and to have his gender changed to female on state documents.
In his petition, Delgado, who was 19 at the time, stated, “Getting a name change will help me truly be the person I am, hearing and even seeing my legal name currently brings back unwanted memories. It will help me be one step closer to my end goal in my journey of being a trans woman. I feel as though my legal name does not suit me anymore and have been going by my preferred name for some years now and it’s time to make it official.”
The judge authorized the name change and gender alteration of state documents.
On April 29, 2021, Jeffrey Thomas Harris petitioned the district court in Tulsa County to change his name to Jesi Claire Polaris and change the gender listed on his state documents to female.
Harris, then age 29, wrote, “I am a transgender woman who has been undergoing hormone replacement therapy for 1 year and 8 months. I have been living ‘full time’ as my identified gender for the past 2 years. A necessary step for me to live a happy and fulfilled life is to legally change my name and gender marker to ones that are congruent with my identified gender.”
On June 9, 2021, Judge William D. LaFortune issued an order granting Harris’ requests.
In several cases, petitioners asked the court to waive publication of notice of hearing, arguing that the petitioners would be endangered by standard transparency.
Wylie’s attorney filed one such motion, stating, “Sadly, at least 40 transgender and gender non-conforming people have been fatally shot or killed in 2020 alone.”
The statistic on violent deaths mostly mirrors language from the Human Rights Campaign, which has a release on its web site that states, “Sadly, 2020 has already seen at least 45 transgender or gender-expansive people fatally shot or killed by other violent means, the majority of which were Black and Latine transgender women.”
However, neither the motions filed by Oklahoma plaintiffs nor the release from the Human Rights Campaign demonstrate that those deaths were the result of people being targeted for violence due to transgender status.
For example, one Oklahoma victim of violence identified by the Human Rights Campaign was Dustin Parker of McAlester, a woman who identified as a man. Parker was shot while driving a taxi the morning of New Year’s Day in 2020.
Police told the Tulsa World that investigators had not found any evidence to suggest Parker was targeted because of Parker’s transgender identity.