The ACLU has found its latest grievance to champion: Alabama’s supposed “blatant cruelty” to transgender individuals seeking a driver’s license in the state.
The ACLU is suing the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency on behalf of a group of transgender individuals who are claiming discrimination because of the agency’s requirement that they show proof of gender surgery before the state will change the gender designation on their driver’s licenses.
In announcing the suit, ACLU attorney Gabriel Arkles declared that “anyone who is eligible for a license should be able to get one that they can use without sacrificing their privacy, safety, health, autonomy or dignity.”
One of the plaintiffs in the case, identified as Darcy Corbitt, said he/she was humiliated when applying for a driver’s license when the clerk discussed Corbitt’s gender identity in the license bureau’s crowded office space, at one point allegedly referring to Corbitt as “it.”
The gender-confused Corbitt complained that “I was subjected to the most blatant cruelty another human being had ever inflicted on me.”
In its press release announcing the legal action, the ACLU said that “Alabama is one of nine states that still demands proof of surgery from transgender people before issuing an accurate driver’s license. For many transgender people, gender-confirming surgical procedures are an important, necessary form of medical care. But not all transgender people need or want surgery, and others can’t afford to get the treatment they need.”
All of which means that such individuals are required by Alabama to claim the gender with which they were born — a common-sense requirement the ACLU wants removed. The leftist legal group is asking a federal judge to overturn the policy and essentially allow individuals to claim whatever gender they choose with no requirement of biological proof.
As reported by The New American, in June 2017 Oregon enacted a measure allowing its residents to identify themselves as male, female, or neither on driver’s licenses and ID cards. The law, passed by Oregon’s Transportation Commission, allows Oregon residents to choose among three gender categories when applying for driver’s licenses or state identification cards: male, female, or “X” — for a “non-binary” or unspecified sex.
Reuters noted that the ACLU has successfully challenged similar rules for driver’s licenses in both Alaska and Michigan.
