Post by willie with tan lines on Sept 27, 2017 5:22:21 GMT -8
New gender category ‘X’ awaits Gov. Brown’s decision
This is the time of year when Californians with a vested interest in particular pieces of legislation wring their hands and wait. Hundreds of bills now sit on the notoriously unpredictable Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk for a signature that will turn them into law, or a big fat veto.
Mark Snyder is watching one in particular. It would make California the first state to legally recognize nonbinary people — those who don’t consider themselves male or female — on all state-issued identification. In June, Oregon changed its driver’s licenses so residents there can choose M for male, F for female or X for neither, but California’s would extend that option to birth certificates and other pieces of state ID.
“We’re certainly on our way out of the shadows now,” said the 34-year-old Snyder, a San Francisco resident who identifies as nonbinary and works as the director of communications for Equality Federation, a national LGBTQ civil rights organization.
The bill would also make it easier for transgender people to change their names and genders on state documents because
they no longer would have to appear in court with a doctor’s signature verifying that they’ve received appropriate medical treatment. In addition, the bill would allow those under 18 to change their gender designations, which currently is prohibited.
It’s the kind of proposal that makes certain Americans look to California and sneer in disgust. The conservative California Family Council, for example, opposes the bill because it “advances a lie — that being male or female or no gender at all is a choice each person has the right to make.”
Why anybody would care whether other people are allowed to use X on their driver’s licenses is beyond me. The bill is the kind of proposal that sets California apart as a forward-thinking state that tries to do right by all its residents, not just those with whom we happen to agree. Gov. Brown sure could ruffle President Trump’s feathered hair with a mere stroke of the pen on this one.
“The president is trying to rev up his base by scapegoating transgender people, so it is very important for California to go in the other direction,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who introduced SB179 with state Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego. “When you make it easy for people to simply be who they are, they’re going to be happier, healthier and more productive members of society.”
Wiener acknowledged the idea might seem weird to other parts of the country. He added, “Then in 10 or 15 years, they’ll be doing the same thing.”
That’s what Snyder hopes. They live in a studio high up in Mid-Market’s Fox Plaza Apartments with “a front-row seat to the gentrification of the neighborhood.” (“They” is Snyder and many nonbinary people’s preferred pronoun.)
Snyder explained that as a kid in rural Pennsylvania, they knew early on that they weren’t male or female. Snyder is openly gay, but not transgender, and never felt like they’d been born in the wrong body.
“I never had that feeling of wanting to grow up to be a man or a woman. I always felt somewhere else — somewhere in between,” Snyder said. “I think one of the life lessons that I’ve learned from being nonbinary is being able to hold more than one truth at the same time or see the world with more color.”
Snyder was often mistaken for a girl as a child and faced extreme bullying in high school. They didn’t learn the term “gender nonbinary” until attending Emerson College in Boston. Snyder moved to San Francisco in 2009 and said even in this anything-goes, liberal bastion, they still get stares and muttered comments.
“I take it in stride,” Snyder said. “I pretend that I’m famous.”
Snyder has the closely cropped hair of a stereotypical man, but often wears makeup, nail polish, feminine jewelry and women’s clothing. Snyder said that as a white person with a man’s body, they have a lot more privilege than other nonbinary people. But even so, having an identification card that matches their gender would “feel like a relief.”
...
www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/New-gender-category-X-awaits-Gov-Brown-s-12227733.php?cmpid=twitter-premium
This is the time of year when Californians with a vested interest in particular pieces of legislation wring their hands and wait. Hundreds of bills now sit on the notoriously unpredictable Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk for a signature that will turn them into law, or a big fat veto.
Mark Snyder is watching one in particular. It would make California the first state to legally recognize nonbinary people — those who don’t consider themselves male or female — on all state-issued identification. In June, Oregon changed its driver’s licenses so residents there can choose M for male, F for female or X for neither, but California’s would extend that option to birth certificates and other pieces of state ID.
“We’re certainly on our way out of the shadows now,” said the 34-year-old Snyder, a San Francisco resident who identifies as nonbinary and works as the director of communications for Equality Federation, a national LGBTQ civil rights organization.
The bill would also make it easier for transgender people to change their names and genders on state documents because
they no longer would have to appear in court with a doctor’s signature verifying that they’ve received appropriate medical treatment. In addition, the bill would allow those under 18 to change their gender designations, which currently is prohibited.
It’s the kind of proposal that makes certain Americans look to California and sneer in disgust. The conservative California Family Council, for example, opposes the bill because it “advances a lie — that being male or female or no gender at all is a choice each person has the right to make.”
Why anybody would care whether other people are allowed to use X on their driver’s licenses is beyond me. The bill is the kind of proposal that sets California apart as a forward-thinking state that tries to do right by all its residents, not just those with whom we happen to agree. Gov. Brown sure could ruffle President Trump’s feathered hair with a mere stroke of the pen on this one.
“The president is trying to rev up his base by scapegoating transgender people, so it is very important for California to go in the other direction,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who introduced SB179 with state Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego. “When you make it easy for people to simply be who they are, they’re going to be happier, healthier and more productive members of society.”
Wiener acknowledged the idea might seem weird to other parts of the country. He added, “Then in 10 or 15 years, they’ll be doing the same thing.”
That’s what Snyder hopes. They live in a studio high up in Mid-Market’s Fox Plaza Apartments with “a front-row seat to the gentrification of the neighborhood.” (“They” is Snyder and many nonbinary people’s preferred pronoun.)
Snyder explained that as a kid in rural Pennsylvania, they knew early on that they weren’t male or female. Snyder is openly gay, but not transgender, and never felt like they’d been born in the wrong body.
“I never had that feeling of wanting to grow up to be a man or a woman. I always felt somewhere else — somewhere in between,” Snyder said. “I think one of the life lessons that I’ve learned from being nonbinary is being able to hold more than one truth at the same time or see the world with more color.”
Snyder was often mistaken for a girl as a child and faced extreme bullying in high school. They didn’t learn the term “gender nonbinary” until attending Emerson College in Boston. Snyder moved to San Francisco in 2009 and said even in this anything-goes, liberal bastion, they still get stares and muttered comments.
“I take it in stride,” Snyder said. “I pretend that I’m famous.”
Snyder has the closely cropped hair of a stereotypical man, but often wears makeup, nail polish, feminine jewelry and women’s clothing. Snyder said that as a white person with a man’s body, they have a lot more privilege than other nonbinary people. But even so, having an identification card that matches their gender would “feel like a relief.”
...
www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/New-gender-category-X-awaits-Gov-Brown-s-12227733.php?cmpid=twitter-premium
