New York Officials Sued Over Limits to Gender Options on Licenses
The lawsuit says Sander Saba is blocked from receiving a New York driver's license due to policy from the state Department of Motor Vehicles that only offers the gender marker of male or female, according to the lawsuit.
July 29, 2020 at 01:48 PM
3 minute read
New York State Drivers License Photo: M. Unal Ozmen/Shutterstock
New York state officials are being sued over a state policy the lawsuit says limits the gender options on driver's licenses to female and male.
The plaintiff in the case is Sander Saba, a nonbinary transgender New Yorker who is looking for a state driver's license with an "X" gender marker.
The lawsuit says Saba is blocked from receiving a New York driver's license due to policy from the state Department of Motor Vehicles that only offers the gender marker of male or female, according to the lawsuit.
A gender designation on identification documents is often not correct for many nonbinary people, according to the lawsuit. That's because their birth-assigned sex doesn't match up with their gender identity, "which is neither exclusively female nor exclusively male."
"Correcting the gender marker designation on identity documents is thus critically important for nonbinary people," the lawsuit argues. "Accurately identifying one's gender to the world is essential to one's personhood and ability to navigate the world."
More than a dozen states nationwide allow "X" gender markers on their driver's licenses, according to Lambda Legal.
Saba has a Pennsylvania driver's license with an "X "gender marker and a birth certificate with the same marker, according to the lawsuit. But since Saba is a resident of New York, they are required by state law to exchange their Pennsylvania license for a New York one, the litigation states.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mark J.F. Schroeder, commissioner of the state DMV, are listed as defendants in the suit. It was filed in the federal Southern District of New York on Tuesday.
The complaint was surfaced by Legal Radar.
Richard Azzopardi, spokesman for Cuomo, said New York recently changed forms and policies so that the birth certificates for transgender and nonbinary individuals "accurately reflect their gender identities."
"We are reviewing other government documents as well," he said in a statement.
The lawsuit says New York state and New York City allow nonbinary people to receive a birth certificate with the gender marker of "X." Because of those moves, the state gender marker policy on driver's licenses "further defies logic," the lawsuit argues.
"No compelling, important, or even legitimate governmental justification supports New York State's refusal to provide nonbinary persons with accurate driver's licenses that reflect their gender identity," the litigation states.
READ MORE:
Litigation Over NY Law Allowing Licenses for Undocumented Immigrants Moves in Albany After Buffalo Defeat
Survival of the Fittest: How New York City's LGBT Bar Association Is Redefining What It Means To Be a Bar Association
Letter: Treatment of Transgender People in Custody Must Improve
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