How a transgender teen got South Carolina to change its license photo policy

[PoliticAverse]

When Chase Culpepper first tried to get a driver’s license last year, South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles employees said the 16-year-old couldn’t wear makeup for the photo.

Culpepper, who currently identifies as female, identified as male at the time and was regularly wearing women’s clothing and makeup. A DMV employee, citing a policy that says people taking license photos can’t “purposefully alter” their appearances to misrepresent their identities, had Culpepper go into the bathroom repeatedly to remove the makeup before posing for a photo.

Culpepper wanted to retake the license photo, but the DMV refused. So the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund filed a lawsuit in federal court on Culpepper’s behalf, claiming discrimination based on sex stereotypes.

Now, the DMV will change its policy under terms of a settlement reached this week.

Read the rest at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/04/22/how-a-transgender-teen-got-south-carolina-to-change-its-license-photo-policy/

[marym625]

1. YAY! Good for her!

[One_Life_To_Give]

2. A bit sad

Despite this being good news and apparently the new process is will written. What had felt to me like a boy fighting for the right to do things traditionally considered feminine, gets a bit lost. Males with feminine desires have still failed to find their voice.

[nomorenomore08]

4. True. Lots of male-identified men ("cis men") have hobbies or characteristics considered "feminine."

Some of which, like cooking, I would consider to be basic life skills for any gender.

[Joe Magarac]

3. Good.

It seems like a no-brainer that if she wears the make up to the DMV, that how she'll look when a cop asks for her license. Because it's supposed to be an ID, right?

[nomorenomore08]

5. And unlike, say, a niqab, it doesn't conceal the person's face. So not an issue for ID purposes. n/t