Arkansas bars use of ‘X’ as substitute for male or female classification on driver’s licenses and IDs

The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) announced Tuesday a proposed emergency rule that would disallow the use of “X” as a substitute for male or female on state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards.

In its filing, the DRA asserted that the emergency rule is necessary for the Office of Driver Services (Office) to meet its responsibilities under state law. As per Arkansas Code § 27-16-1104(3), the Office is required to include a person’s gender on their driver’s license or identification card. Prior to Tuesday, the Office’s standard practice allowed license and identification card holders to use “X” in lieu of male or female gender classifications.

Under the proposed rule, the Office would also be barred from issuing or renewing driver’s licenses or identification cards that use “X” instead of a male or female classification. It also grants the Office the power “to modify gender information to correspond with the person’s birth certificate, passport [] or DHS identity document contained in the records of the Office.” According to the DRA’s filing:

The purpose of this rule to ensure that individuals and organizations that rely upon identifying information contained within a driver’s license or identification card are provided with the most accurate and complete gender information that reflects the person’s gender information stated within the holder’s birth certificate, passport [] or Homeland Security document.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders expressed her support for the proposed emergency rule. She wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter):

Only women give birth, men shouldn’t play women’s sports [] and there are only two genders … As long as I’m Governor, Arkansas state government will not endorse nonsense.

The ACLU of Arkansas released a statement in opposition, stating that the proposed emergency rule “seeks to erase the existence of non-binary and intersex Arkansans by denying them identity documents that reflect their true selves, forcing them into categories that do not represent their identities.”

This proposed rule is one of several recent moves across the US to suppress the identity rights of transgender people. On February 8, Attorney General of Kansas Kris Kobach issued a statement condemning public schools for allegedly allowing teachers to conceal children’s transgender status from their parents. On January 10, West Virginia State Senator Mike Azinger introduced bills classifying transgender people as “obscene matter” and banning gender-affirming care for people under the age of 21.