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Real ID Is Coming Soon. For The Trans Community, It’s A Complicated Situation

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Getting a Real ID-compliant driver’s license isn’t a huge hassle for most people, but if you’ve had your legal name and/or gender markers changed, things get difficult quickly.

Beginning next year, boarding a plane is just one of the things that will be more difficult to do without a Real ID-compliant driver’s license or ID. On Oct. 1, 2020, federal agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration, will no longer accept non-Real ID driver’s licenses or identification cards as valid forms of identification. Travelers without a Real ID will need to present a passport to access TSA security checkpoints, regardless of whether they will be flying internationally or not. 

While the deadline to acquire a Real ID-compliant driver’s license or identification card quickly approaches, the law which mandates Real ID has been in place for over a decade. The 9/11 Commission recommended that Congress establish minimum safety standards for state-issued IDs, and in 2005 Congress passed the Real ID Act.

Real ID-compliant driver’s licenses won’t look too different from driver’s licenses of the past (the only visible difference is the presence of a star in the corner), but according to the Department of Homeland Security, the security standards for Real ID include “information and security features that must be incorporated into each card; application information to establish the identity and immigration status of an applicant before a card can be issued; and physical security standards for facilities where driver’s licenses and applicable identification cards are produced.”

To obtain a Real ID-compliant driver’s license or identification card, applicants must provide the following to the DMV:

  • One proof of legal identity and legal presence
  • Two proofs of Virginia residency
  • One proof of social security number
  • A current driver’s license if moving from another state and seeking to obtain a Virginia driver’s license for the first time.

Over 700,000 Virginians have already acquired a Real ID. But for many in Virginia and throughout the country, acquiring a Real ID is not as simple as merely providing the documents listed above.

“As I understand it, the DMV will turn you away if all your legal documents don’t match,” said Imogen Alsheskie, a transgender woman who is seeking to change her name legally.

People who have changed their name in the past will not be able to acquire a Real ID without additional documentation that shows proof of the name change. This can be presented to the DMV in the form of a marriage certificate, divorce decree, or a court order.

But acquiring a Real ID can be particularly tricky for people like Alsheskie, who does not have proof of a name change. Without the document showing proof of a name change, Alsheskie may not be able to obtain a Real ID due to the fact that other required documents may list different names.

“I’m going to try to get one by Oct. 2020,” Alsheskie said, noting that she would like to be able to visit family in Los Angeles with ease. “It’s difficult because I have to first legally change my name, which costs an extra $40 or so that I don’t have.”

Real ID driver’s license vs. non-Real ID driver’s license (Images via DMV)

For transgender and non-binary people, the obligation to acquire a Real ID by Oct. 2020 to access federal facilities poses a real problem on account of how difficult it can be to change your name. And for people that have documents with different genders listed, things can be even more complicated. Whereas the Virginia DMV includes a section on how to prove a name change in its guide on obtaining a Real ID, the guide entirely neglects to mention how individuals whose gender markers are listed differently on different documents can go about obtaining a Real ID.

What’s more, differing standards in different governmental departments can result in those differing gender markers being impossible to reconcile. GayRVA Editor-in-Chief Marilyn Drew Necci is listed as female but as male on her birth certificate. Since the state of Virginia requires certification of gender-confirming surgery, which she hasn’t had, in order to change the gender marker on her birth certificate, she’s stuck with documents that list two different gender markers.

“The surgery is very expensive, more than I can afford,” said Necci. “And now I have to worry that I’ll lose the female gender marker on my license if I try to get a Real ID using my birth certificate. The federal passport office has the same standard [requiring surgery in order to change gender markers], so even with a passport, I have the same problem.”

Alsheskie noted how frustrating the process is, saying that it has made part of her life more difficult.

“The process of changing my name feels as if I’m a character in a Kafka novel,” Alsheskie said. “The absurdity of bureaucracy stresses me out.”

Top Photo via VCU-CNS

Mario Lopez Says It’s Dangerous to Support Transgender Kids

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For Hollywood stars whose relevance is fading, sharing discriminatory hot takes on causes you don’t understand is a bad way to get back in the spotlight.

This week, things took an awkward turn when it turned out that Zach Morris is not actually the Saved By The Bell cast member who is trash. Instead, it turns out, it’s good ol’ AC Slater. Former Saved By the Bell actor Mario Lopez, who is now a host on the entertainment news show Extra, is confused — and he thinks you actually care about his opinion. 

He especially seems to think you care about his problematic (read: dangerous) opinion about parents who support their transgender children. Originally Lopez appeared back in June on conservative YouTube talk show The Candace Owens Show and was asked about parents allowing their children to express traditionally-opposite gender interests. Specifically, he remarked about how children don’t understand what is going on anyway, and how dangerous it is. 

Owens, who was previously a nanny, opened the questioning by prodding that children don’t have the mental authority to understand gender identity. 

“I’m kind of blown away, too,” Lopez told Owens, according to NBC News. “I’m never one to tell anyone how to parent their kids, obviously, and I think if you come from a place of love, you really can’t go wrong… but at the same time, my God, if you’re 3 years old and you’re saying you’re feeling a certain way, or you think you’re a boy or a girl — or whatever the case may be — I just think it’s dangerous as a parent to make that determination.” 

“When you’re a kid … you don’t know anything about sexuality yet. You’re just a kid,” Lopez said. 

While this may be true depending on the source you cite, it should be noted by anyone with any sense that gender and sexuality are two separate entities. Conservative media enjoys conveniently combining them, but it should again be noted that they are, seriously, not the same thing. 

It took a while for anyone to notice his appearance on the show, but finally people found out about it, and now Lopez has come under fire on social media. Naturally, he backpedaled the hell out of there as soon as the clip went viral, commenting on Wednesday about how sorry he is and how much he supports the LGBTQ community. 

“I have been, and always will be, an ardent supporter of the LGBTQ community, and I am going to use this opportunity to better educate myself,” Lopez said, according to Insider. “Moving forward I will be more informed and thoughtful.” 

I would like to point out that if he really agreed that these comments were in poor taste, he wouldn’t have waited until the last day of July to jump on that. To quote my dear father, “You’re not sorry you did it, you’re sorry you got caught.” 

For the record, the producers of Extra were not on board with what Lopez had to say, issuing a statement of their own about the whole affair. “While we have enjoyed a long relationship with Mario Lopez, who we know to be a caring person, the opinions he expressed in this interview do not reflect those of Extra,” they stated, according to Deadline. “We wholeheartedly embrace our friends from the LGBTQ community and believe they need support and love.”

Hopefully cast members from 90s teen sitcoms will give us more of that support and love in the future. And hopefully Mario Lopez will follow through on that promise to educate himself about an issue he has proven himself ignorant about.

CheapUndies Shares Guidance On Picking Out Underwear For Trans Women

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Richmond’s favorite online purveyor of budget-conscious unmentionables is making an effort to connect with its trans and gender non-conforming customers. CheapUndies,com recently published an “Underwear Guide For Trans Women,” a step motivated by “many requests,” according to an email from CheapUndies owner Edward Upton.

The guide, which can be found on the site’s “articles” page along with a historical examination of corsets, a guide to layering for outdoor winter activities, and an article about nursery rhymes (?), is specifically focused on trans women rather than trans and gender non-conforming people as a whole — no word on whether a similar article for trans men is forthcoming.

However, it does stand to reason that the need is greater for trans women; societal stigma against people assigned male at birth starting to purchase and wear women’s clothes is much greater than that against people who are assigned female at birth wearing clothes intended for men.

Obtaining clothes that match their intended gender presentation is an early and important step for people in the midst of a gender transition, and it has to be done before you actually have the appropriate clothes in which to do such shopping. Thus, a lot of people, including myself when I began my own gender transition a few years ago, find themselves turning to online shopping to fill basic wardrobe needs.

Of course, underwear’s an important part of all this. And finding the right underwear for oneself can be a difficult and complicated process, especially when you’re suddenly switching to a completely different set of undergarments. So yeah, CheapUndies’ “Underwear Guide For Trans Women” definitely fills a need.

While the author’s identity isn’t given, it seems to have been written by someone who knows the struggle. It focuses on those who are earliest in their transition, giving tips to help ease people into the world of women’s underwear, without making anything too complicated.

Notably, where tops are concerned, it talks only of sports bras and bralettes. Once you’ve moved on to the higher math of underwire bras, it seems to imply, you’ve graduated into the same overly complex and difficult fitting situation that every other woman in the world, cis or trans, finds themselves in. Congratulations?

The page ends with a series of links to sites that offer support for trans women, from mental health crisis hotlines and guides to being safe in relationships to makeup tutorials and finding appropriately-sized women’s clothing for trans women… which, of course, is what got us here in the first place.

Check out CheapUndies’ “Underwear Guide For Trans Women” here. And while you’re on the site, if you happen to spot any good deals on bras, drop me a line — I’m in the market.

Photo via CheapUndies.com

Stafford Country School Board Responds to Transgender Student Singled Out During Active Shooter Drill

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A Stafford County Middle School has come under fire for isolating a transgender girl during active shooter training last week. According to a Facebook post by Equality Stafford on October 3, the incident occurred during a lock down drill.

“One student was prevented from entering either the boys or girls locker room while the teachers discussed where she should go. The student was forced to watch the adults charged with her care, debate the safest place (for the other students) to have her shelter,” it read. 

The post goes on to say that she was made to sit in the gym with a teacher until the drill was over, while “away from her peers and identified as different.” 

The post also poses a larger issue: “After some additional debate, she was made to sit in the locker room hallway, by the door away from her peers. This happened because the child, in addition to being a model student, also happens to be transgender.”

Equality Stafford was also clear about how the drill was conducted, and where the school believes the major risk during an active shooter scenario would be.

“Let me be clear. During an event that prepares children to survive an attack by actual assailants, she was treated as if she was so much of a danger to peers that she was left exposed and vulnerable,” they said.

In a later post, the LGBTQ group pointed out that the teachers who led the lock down drills are not the “bad guys” and that they are teachers without “guidance,” scared of potential “retribution” from parents and the administration.

“These teachers need education and support, and we need you to accomplish that,” the post went on to say.

Indeed, Virginia schools have grappled with trans issues for the past few years: trans teen Gavin Grimm sued the Gloucester County School Board to use the boys’ bathroom in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Grimm won his case in May of this year, but not without a three-year struggle, which included the school board contesting the ruling.

At a school board meeting last night, Superintendent Scott Kizner said he personally apologized to the teen and called for a change in the school’s policy. According to Fredericksburg.com, Kizner was quoted during the meeting:

“We did not live up to my unwavering expectation that every child and adult — regardless of race, religion, color, disability, gender and sexual orientation — is treated with respect and dignity, and for that I apologize to the student, the family and the Stafford community.”

Kizner was asked whether he thinks the trans student should have been allowed to shelter-in-place in the girl’s locker room during a potential incident. He replied by saying that students should head to the most secure location regardless of their gender.

Here’s How Trans And Gender Non-Conforming Virginians Can Ensure Vote In 2018

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*This article was original published on GayRVA. 

According to a recent Williams Institute study, as many as 78,000 transgender citizens may be prevented from voting in 2018. In eight states including Virginia, voting law requires voters to show a government-issued IDs. And with many transgender and gender-nonconforming people no longer looking like their ID photos — due to surgeries, hormone therapy, and other changes to their appearance — they therefore risk being turned down by officials working the polls.

Bary Hausrath, a lawyer and transgender ally from the Virginia Equality Bar Association, points out that other options are available to potential trans voters. “Virginia does have strict voter I.D. laws for voting,” he said. ”But anyone can get a voter I.D. that is a photo I.D. just for the purpose of voting, that does not have the gender marker on it.” The Virginia Voter Photo ID Application, which is available online, should be turned in at the registrar’s office, where they will take a current picture of you that can be added to your card.

However, even this form may not be enough if the transgender or gender nonconforming person have not changed their legal name. Despite the complications in the state of Virginia though, Hausrath said, “Virginia has one of the easiest set of regulations on getting the gender markered on driver’s license” in comparison to other states. Bary went on to say that the financial cost is also “relatively low.”s,” said Hausrath

The Virginia Equality Bar works to provide “clinics around the state to help people get identification documents and change their name on various documents.” They will be performing this service at Equality Virginia’s TIES conference in late October, but if you hope to vote in 2018, TIES will be too late to get your documentation ready in time.  Hausrath encourages those who are in need to start the documentation process now.

For trans people who are in need of current legal documentation, the most important aspect to focus time and energy into is getting your legal name changed. Information on starting this process can be found through the National Center for Transgender Equality’s website, which lists instructions for all state and federal documentation a transgender person might need.

The Virginia Equality Bar Association is based in Richmond, but several other aid networks for transgender and gender non-conforming citizens exist around the state. Equality Virginia’s TIES pop-ups, which happen in various cities across the state, help bring these sorts of resources to people who don’t live in close proximity to Virginia’s capital, including Norfolk, Virginia and Winchester, Virginia. In addition to help with legal documentation, these clinics also include medical and mental health consultations, job training, advocacy workshops, and introductions to supportive organizations based within the local community.

Hausrath is still concerned about the safety of transgender citizens under the current administration. “Our community needs to be on guard and vigilant,” he said. “You never know where the next attack will come from, but when it comes to voting I think most of the damage from the federal level has been done.”

Voting is just one of many ways that citizens can directly impact politics, but it is the most direct opportunity we have to choose who represents us in government. It may be more difficult for transgender and gender non-conforming Virginians to make their votes count this year, but the opportunity to make our voices heard is one we should be take advantage of, especially within the current political climate.