We’re Blue And We See The Difference?

 

There is a big, big difference between Red and Blue states.

Gender equality gets CT support

Nonbinary license designations slowly growing in acceptance

Hartford Courant

By Susan Dunne

May 1, 2023

At the Connecticut DMV, one nonbinary license is issued about every other day. The gender designation, denoting someone outside of the binary male or female, was offered by the state Department of Motor Vehicles beginning Jan. 27, 2020.

More than three years later, 571 Connecticut residents have chosen the “X,” rather than the “M” or “F,” the DMV reports.

That may not seem like much, compared to the thousands of people the DMV, and AAA, serve every day. But for people who chose the X, it’s an empowering form of self-determination.

“This means my state was giving me legal recognition and affirming me in a way that some people might not be capable of doing,” said Lindsey M. Pasquale of Hebron [Just to set the record correct, Lindsey is a friend]. “From a mental health standpoint, it’s a very positive thing.”

Pasquale, Northeast Regional Director at PFLAG National, was so keen to get an X that she and her friend went to the Manchester AAA on the first day they were offered. Pasquale’s friend was the first in the state to get it. Pasquale was the second.

“I wanted to adopt it early. I thought there was a risk of it getting removed or getting underutilized and that people would think that not many people out there wanted it,” Pasquale said.

Now tell me do you think you will see non-binary designation on driver licenses in say Tennessee? What about in Florida or Texas?

But for some they don’t want an “X” on their documents for fear of discrimination.

“A lot of people aren’t comfortable making the change. There are people living at home not out to their parents. People might be concerned how it might effect their job prospects by having it on there because they’re not ready to come out at work,” she said. “So many things go through people’s heads.”‘Having the strength’

[…]

Becoming a target

Others in the LGBTQ community have chosen not to check the X when they apply for or renew their licenses.

Mel Cordner, executive director of LGBTQ youth support agency Q Plus, said the rising tide of transphobia makes some hesitant to declare their gender identity on an official document.

“I know a lot of people, myself included, who haven’t changed theirs because they don’t want to become more of a target from whoever might access their ID, like police and doctors,” Cordner said. “That sounds sort of dramatic but it is reality.”

Red states v. Blue states and sometimes you have to travel between them.

“Having an X option is well-intentioned, as it tries to create space to include more people. But all the X does is put us all in a new box, reinforcing the idea that we don’t fit in the standard boxes,” they said.

Yeah, that is why I have a “F” and not an “X.”

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On the town's Facebook page someone is selling lawn pride signs. Forty-one people commented about them and not one negative comment. The difference between Red and Blue states.

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Ticky tacky little boxes. Why do we even need boxes?