RMV now allows for gender change on licenses, state ID cards

The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) has issued a new policy to facilitate the changing of gender markers on driver's licenses and state-issued identification cards for people who have undergone a gender transition, a move that LGBT advocates say will have a substantial impact on the daily lives of transgender people.

In a Jan. 21 letter to MassEquality Executive Director Marc Solomon notifying him of the new policy, Registrar Rachel Kaprielien called the changes "fair reasonable and sensible." She stated that next edition of the RMV's Driver's Manual would reflect the amended policy.

The new policy allows a person wishing to change the gender marker on their driver's license or state ID to submit an updated application along with a Gender Designation Change form, signed by the applicant and a medical provider "attesting to the gender that individual considers himself or herself to be."

Previous RMV policy allowed the change of gender designation only with the submission of medical proof of sex reassignment surgery or a birth certificate reflecting a person's gender change - requirements that Jennifer Levi, the director of the Transgender Rights Project at Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), said were often difficult, if not impossible for many transgender people to fulfill. She noted, for instance, that many states, even if they legally recognize a person's gender transition, will not issue a revised birth certificate. Doing away with proof of sex reassignment surgery, and instead allowing a doctor to give an individualized assessment affirming a person's transition, Levi further stated, "is also consistent with the consensus position of the medical community" which does not embrace "a cookie cutter approach to transition."

GLAD and MassEquality advocated for the policy change alongside the Mass. Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) and openly gay state Rep. Carl Sciortino (D-Medford). "We had some positive conversations within the relevant agencies," said Levi. "This is the culmination of [an] educational process with different governmental agencies." In addition to the RMV, advocates also talked with officials from the Department of Public Health and the Department of Public Safety. MTPC Executive Director Gunner Scott said that he and Sciortino met with Kaprielien in August and that she was receptive to learning about the issue and exploring a change in policy.

RMV's in California and Washington, D.C. have similar policies in place, said Scott. "Massachusetts is not the first state to do this," he noted.

Though the policy change was implemented quietly, Scott and Levi emphasized the positive impact it would have on transgender people, given the daily frequency with which the average citizen is required to produce legal identification such as a driver's license - from purchasing cigarettes to cashing checks to accessing airports. Presenting in a gender that does not match the gender marker on one's license or state ID not only effectively outs the person as transgender, Scott noted, it "sets people up for discrimination, violence and harassment," especially since there is currently no state law outlawing discrimination based on gender identity or expression. (Sciortino has filed a bill in the legislature to outlaw such discrimination.)

Beyond the tangible impact of having an accurate license or state ID, Scott said there is also an emotional benefit to the transgender community because of the policy change. "This brings us one step closer to being able to live our lives and breathe a little bit easier," he said.

"It might sound like a small thing," said Solomon of the policy change, "but in the lives of trans people this makes a really big difference."

"This policy simply puts Massachusetts back in the mainstream of forward- thinking states along with a number of other states, so that as long as a medical provider attests to it, a transgender person is able to declare their appropriate gender on their license," he said.