Department of Homeland Security has released their final rules for the Real ID act.

DHS Real ID Top page

Here are direct links to the Final Rules web pages:

Final Rule, Part 1 (PDF, 120 pages - 4.2 MB)
Final Rule, Part 2 (PDF, 164 pages – 5.6 MB)

Here is what I found applying the search term [GENDER] to Part 2. (Another hairy search is [SOURCE DOCUMENT])

Quote from: DHS Real ID Final Rule (Part 2), Pg 123/PDF-42. Gender
  Comment: Two States raised issues about how gender is determined for transgender individuals and whether gender will be included as a verifiable identifier through EVVE.

  Response: DHS will leave the determination of gender up to the States since different States have different requirements concerning when, and under what circumstances, a transgendered individual should be identified as another gender. Data fields in EVVE are outside the scope of this rulemaking.

Quote from: DHS Real ID Final Rule (Part 2), Pg 142/PDF-22Groups supporting encryption cited the following:
<snip>
--The possible inclusion of additional private information in MRZ, such as
residential address, race, [trans]gender, or legal name history that could expose the holder
to harm if captured and revealed.

--the rules require there to be gender on the face of the Real ID card, but allows each individual state to determine your gender.  I see this as giving the FundeVangelists the opportunity to gain the upper hand and use Real ID as the hammer they've been searching for.

Get your documents organized...

Karen

Gender determination is already of state resort, so I'm not sure why this would be worse
than the current system. The annoying thing is the legal name history, which I wouldn't
want just anyone to have, since it would out you to anyone. Only when dealing with
highest security access should this be used (and in these cases, they run full background checks anyway and it will come out).

Quote from: Karen on January 11, 2008, 04:20:20 PM
Department of Homeland Security has released their final rules for the Real ID act.

Quote from: DHS Real ID Final Rule (Part 2), Pg 123/PDF-42. Gender
  Comment: Two States raised issues about how gender is determined for transgender individuals and whether gender will be included as a verifiable identifier through EVVE.

  Response: DHS will leave the determination of gender up to the States since different States have different requirements concerning when, and under what circumstances, a transgendered individual should be identified as another gender. Data fields in EVVE are outside the scope of this rulemaking.

Get your documents organized...

Karen

Some states are fairly liberal in gender determination, allowing the individual to
state the gender that they feel they most appropriately identify with.

And other states will only allow the gender designations to be altered after GRS.

This directive by DHS may compound some of the very issues it attempted to
address.

What is so different now than with the New ID act? Anyone who has the capabilities to access your name can find out that you indeed changed your gender, name and whatever else you have changed. It is not a secret to some. Just as long as you have your ID with what you want on it for the everyday use. We are all under the scope, don't be fooled. Just because some people screwed up in issueing people pilots license to would be murderers or how do you know they are going to kill or do something bad? Most people don't have a record of killing people then go out and get a gun permit.
Sheila