Arkansas ends gender-neutral policy for driver's licenses and IDs [View all]

[ificandream]

Source: CNN

?c=16x9&q=h_653,w_1160,c_fill/f_webp
Arkansas will no longer allow residents to use "X" instead of male or female on state-issued driver's licenses or identification cards, officials announced under new rules. Al Drago/Pool/AP

By Shirin Faqiri
Published 6:19 PM EDT, Wed March 13, 2024

The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration rescinded a policy Tuesday that allowed state driver’s license and ID holders to electively change their gender without any “verifiable information” or use the gender-neutral “X” in place of gender. The ACLU of Arkansas said in a statement that policy changes like these threaten the “safety and dignity” of the state’s transgender, intersex and non-binary communities.

The policy revision, which took effect immediately, mandates “that license and ID holders must display a gender of ‘male’ or ‘female,’ as indicated on an original or amended birth certificate,” according to a news release announcing the decision.

Arkansas licenses and IDs that currently have an X “will remain valid” until their next renewal, when they will change to reflect the gender on their owner’s birth certificate, according to the DFA.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders sought to cast the policy change as “common sense” in a statement included in the news release, and she reiterated her belief that “there are only two genders.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/13/us/arkansas-ends-gender-neutral-licenses-reaj/index.html