The bill to allow Massachusetts residents list their gender as “X” on state driver’s licenses—and soon to follow other documents, including birth certificates—passed the Bay State Senate today. The vote was a resounding 39 to 1, with Rep. Jo Comerford of Northampton introducing the legislation. Only Republican Senator Donald F. Humason of Westfield opposed the bill, which is now headed over to the House.
“This bill recognizes the reality of the lives of many non-binary citizens,” said Massachusetts Gay Lesbian Political Caucus Cochair Arline Isaacson. “There is no value in pretending nonbinary or gender nonconforming people don’t exist and no value in misrepresenting them in official government documents.”
According to a MassLive report today:
The bill was considered a top priority for Senate President Karen Spilka, who introduced the first iteration last year. It passed in the Senate but died in the House on the last day of the legislative session.
“Not everyone fits neatly into male or female, and this bill helps to recognize that, and recognize the strength and dignity of every single resident,” said Spilka, an Ashland Democrat. “I think that it’s important for people to realize that their voices absolutely matter.”
Spilka said she is hopeful that the bill will pass in the House. Her bill last year died in the House on the last day of the legislative session. [The former] Rep. Jim Lyons introduced 25 amendments of the bill last time. Each amendment would add a different option for gender in addition to “X,” including “cisgender female,” “androgyne” and other permutations of gender. Lyons is now head of the Massachusetts Republican Party.
Ten states now offer gender-neutral licenses, with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles announcing the change this week.
Opponents of the bill have criticized the measure as an example of the left’s hypocrisy, arguing it would lead to false government documents.
“If you look at your driver’s license right now, it does not say what ‘gender’ you identify as; it lists your ‘sex’ as male or female. That accurately reflects biology and anatomy,” Andrew Beckwith, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute wrote in a statement. “I may ‘identify’ as 6’4” and 25 years old, but I have no business putting that on my driver’s license if I am in reality barely 6 feet tall and was born more than 40 years ago.”
This version includes an amendment from Comerford that would take stock of all the state documents that ask for a resident’s gender and change them to include an “X” option. Comerford told reporters on Thursday those documents range from birth certificates to fishing licenses.
“When you start looking at the state documents, you realize how many times for folks who identify as non-binary or trans, how many times we were forcing them to not be truly who they are,” Comerford said.
“This bill marks the law catching up with the reality of peoples’ lives,” Isaacson said. “Some legislators fearissues like this because thy worry it would be controversial. Clearly, these senators and now the Senate at large have shown that they recognize the reasonableness of measures like this and the importance of having our laws reflect the truths of peoples’ lives, not the biases and prejudices of others.”
