SC DMV: Boy Can't Retake License Photo in Makeup

I woke up in the middle of the night, and couldn't get back to sleep, so, being the news junky that I am, I checked the news and ran across this lovely piece. It seems every time it starts to look like people are finally starting to except and understand transgender/differently-gendered individuals, something like this pops up to show you society hasn't come along as far as you thought.

I've included the article in it's intierty since it's fairly short. It's an AP story so you can probably find it with most major news sites. Here's a link for it from the ABC news site SC DMV: Boy Can't Retake License Photo in Makeup - A very unbiased title for the article. (sarcasm)

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The South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles says a boy who dresses as a girl may not have his driver's license photo retaken wearing makeup.

A New York group known as the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund wrote the DMV last week requesting that 16-year-old Chase Culpepper be allowed to have a new photo dressed as he normally does.

The organization said the youth regularly wears makeup and androgynous or girls' clothing.

In March, Culpepper was told at the DMV office in Anderson he could not have his photo taken with women's makeup and the defense fund says that violates his free speech rights.

"Chase's freedom to express his gender should not be restricted by DMV staff," Michel Silverman, the executive director of the defense fund wrote to the department. "He is entitled to be who he is and express that without interference from government actors."

Beth Parks, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Motor Vehicles, said the agency has received the letter and will be responding that a new photo will not be permitted.

She said that, since 2009, the department has had a policy on taking driver license photos.

The policy says that "at no time will an applicant be photographed when it appears that he or she is purposely altering his or her appearance so that it the photo would misrepresent his or her identity."

She said that law enforcement agencies rely on drivers' license photos to identify people.

"If it's Thomas Jones on the license and yet it looks like a female, that is very confusing for them," she said. "They want to know what the identity is."

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