A Quiet Success in Alaska: Important Ruling in Transgender ID Case
Posted by John Knight, LGBT Project at 4:49pm
http://www.aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/quiet-success-alaska-important-ruling-transgender-id-case (http://www.aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/quiet-success-alaska-important-ruling-transgender-id-case)
It's hard to find the silver lining in the confused and unsettled results over last week's Anchorage Proposition 5 vote — that city's effort to pass by popular vote a law that would protect LGBT people from discrimination in employment, housing, and access to business serving the public. Perhaps when the votes are all counted, we'll discover that the announced loss was premature and inaccurate.
But while we wait for the final results, there is one quiet success for transgender Alaskans that is worth celebrating — a recent court ruling addressing the constitutionality of forcing transgender Alaskans to carry a driver's license or state ID that lists their wrong sex designation. Prior to this ruling, a transgender person was allowed to change the sex listed on his or her license, but only after undergoing risky and expensive surgery that is unnecessary for, and unwanted by, many transgender people. Starting in early 2011, the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles stopped changing the sex on any transgender person's licenses. But on March 12, a court ruled in the case of K.L. v. State of Alaska that this practice is unconstitutional.