(LongLiveRock, via Wikimedia Commons)

A transgender woman who wants to change the gender noted on her birth certificate has filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Health in federal court for the right to do so.

The suit seeks to eliminate a requirement in state law allowing transgender people to change their birth certificates only after undergoing surgery to change their gender. Some transgender people never have such surgery for financial or medical reasons or because they don’t want to, according to the suit. The Jane Doe plaintiff said she is harmed by the statute because it forces her to have surgery she does not want, in violation of her rights under the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.