From the post:
"Hayden Nevill, a
transgender veterinarian in Fairbanks, AK, was one of three clients to
challenge Alaska’s restrictions on correcting the gender on your
driver’s license. In an op-ed published in the Anchorage Daily News
earlier this year, Nevill wrote about how transgender people often have
to struggle or disclose private information just to get driver’s
licenses and other identification documents that match who they are:
'I'm a professional who travels for work. I am a guy. I have a deep voice and a receding hairline. No one meeting me ever mistakes me for female. My passport says I'm male. My Alaska driver's license has my current name and recent photo, but still says 'F'."To fix the Alaska DMV’s flawed policy that required those who seek to change the gender marker on their driver’s license submit proof of a sex reassignment surgery, ACLU filed a lawsuit, K.L. v. Alaska DMV, on behalf of a transgender woman, K.L., whose U.S. passport and work documents all identify her as a female. After initially securing a change to the gender on her driver’s license, she was told that her new license would be revoked unless she submitted proof of having surgery. Later, Nevill and another client served as clients in a separate case seeking the same result. Following a court ruling in the K.L. case finding that denying accurate identification documents violated the privacy rights of transgender Alaskans, the DMV removed the requirement for surgery or any other specific medical intervention to correct the gender on a driver’s license as of August 2012."
'How does this affect me? I carry my passport everywhere, using it for ID when everyone else uses a driver's license. That works fine when I'm presenting my ID on a job site, except when I need to drive a company vehicle or rent a car. Then I'm faced with a confused clerk who may or may not accept my driver's license as valid. If I have to explain medical reasons why my documents don't match, at best it's a conversation that invades my privacy and is uncomfortable for everyone involved. At worst, it exposes me to possible discrimination or suffering physical violence.'
