In the Matter of the Sex Changes of Gray and Rice, 2021 UT 13 (May 6, 2021)

The district court denied appellants’ petition to change their legal sex designations pursuant to Utah Code § 42-1-1, which governs name and sex change petitions, reasoning that because Utah does not have a statute setting forth the standards or procedures for changing ones legal sex designation, it was a nonjusticiable political question.  In reversing the district court and over Justice Lee’s dissent, the Utah Supreme Court held that one “has a common-law right to change facets of their personal legal status, including sex,” and Section 42-1-1’s plain language is a statutory declaration that one can have a “sex change approved by an order of a Utah district court.”