California to offer gender nonconforming option on official state documents

Going beyond male and female, California will offer gender nonconforming residents a third option on official state documents.

A bill signed by Gov Jerry Brown allows Californians to select “nonbinary” when they are applying for drivers licenses. People whose gender identity doesn’t fit neatly into “male” or “female” categories will be able to petition the state for new birth certificates.

Advocates for LGBTQ rights hailed that measure as a victory in the steady march toward allowing the government to accommodate individual gender preferences. They argue identification that accurately conveys that identity will help reduce the disproportionate harassment nonconforming people face.

“Everyone should be able to have IDs that match who they are”, state Sen Toni Atkins, a San Diego Democrat who carried the bill, said in response to Brown’s action.

The law defines nonbinary as “an umbrella term for people with gender identities that fall somewhere outside of the traditional conceptions of strictly either female or male”, noting that non binary people don’t necessarily identify as transgender.

California has been an incubator of the gay rights movement for decades, and its elected officials remained at the forefront as political battles have turned to the treatment of transgender people.

The state has already passed a law allowing students to use the bathrooms or join the sports teams that match their gender identities - an attempt to overturn that law foundered - and requires all single-stall public restrooms to be open to all genders. A law Sen Atkins championed in 2014 allows transgender Californians to have their gender identities reflected on their death certificates.

That has stood in contrast with other states, like Texas and North Carolina, where battles over so-called “bathroom bills” requiring students to use facilities matching their birth-assigned sex have proved deeply divisive.

On the federal level Donald Trump's administration has rolled back Barack Obama's efforts on behalf of transgender people, seeking to bar transgender Americans from military service and rescinding an advisory requiring schools to let students use the bathrooms matching their gender identities.