A transgender person asking for an altered birth certificate showing a different sex hit the Wyoming Supreme Court on Tuesday. It’s the second Supreme Court challenge asking for a birth certificate sex marker change.
The two plaintiffs, in separate cases, are asking courts to order the Wyoming Department of Health to issue them birth certificates showing a different sex. The state is resisting those petitions, and one side of the clash is asking the high court to settle the dispute.
The case of E.W. was docketed Tuesday in the Wyoming Supreme Court. The high court’s case file list’s E.W.’s full name, and the appeal is not a confidential filing.
But E.W.’s original May 9, 2025, petition in the Albany County District Court and all the documents that followed there are sealed, an attendant with the District Court Clerk’s office told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
That means the public cannot access the documents showing how the dispute unfolded in the district court.
E.W.’s attorney Cameron Smith confirmed in a Wednesday phone interview that the lower-court documents are sealed, and voiced surprise at the file becoming public on the Wyoming Supreme Court level.
The sealing is due to sensitive medical information, said Smith.
E.W. also does not have a public persona, and has concerns about danger from being publicly identified, Smith added.
The Albany County District Court filed an order granting E.W.’s request for a birth certificate with a male sex marker.
Wyoming Department of Health intervened to undo that order, and when denied, the agency appealed the higher court, Smith said.
Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz, whose office represents the Department of Health, declined Wednesday comment on the pending case.
E.W. had also petitioned the Albany County District Court on Sept. 12, 2018, for a legal change from a feminine-sounding name to a masculine name. The petition says E.W.’s given name was “inconsistent with Petitioner’s gender.”
“The change of name requested is proper and no reason is known why this requested change of name would be detrimental to the interests of any other person,” says the document.
Then-District Court Judge Tori Kricken granted the request Nov. 7, 2018.
The public-facing court file shows no other actions, civil or criminal, pertaining to E.W.
Second Rodeo
Another petitioner, K.R., asked the court for a birth certificate with a female marker last year.
That case is also pending before the Wyoming Supreme Court.
But it’s not identical to E.W.’s case.
Natrona County District Court Judge Josh Eames had ruled in the opposite direction, for K.R., as Albany County District Court Judge Misha Westby had for E.W.
Eames ruled that the state law’s own definitions for birth certificates as ledgers of the “facts of birth” bar K.R. from receiving an altered birth certificate. The judge also found the What is a Woman Act constitutional.
K.R., meanwhile, asserts that the What is a Woman Act is discriminatory and unconstitutional.
The Wyoming Attorney General is fighting to uphold the act in that appeal.
But E.W. isn’t challenging the act, Smith said.
The attorney said E.W.’s case involved a straightforward petition for a birth certificate change and an order granting that change, without a challenge to the constitutionality of state law.
After Westby granted E.W.’s birth certificate change, said Smith, the Wyoming Attorney General’s office intervened and asked the judge to undo her order.
Both cases are ongoing.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
