California Governor Jerry Brown just signed into law the acknowledgment of a third gender: non-binary. Now, those who don’t fall within the bounds of male or female can check the non-binary box for their driver’s licenses and birth certificates.
“Non-binary is an umbrella term for people with gender identities that fall somewhere outside of the traditional conceptions of strictly either female or male,” the bill states.
The bill also removed the requirement that an individual must undergo clinical treatment to have their gender legally changed.
After having passed quickly through Senate and Assembly, the law will take effect in 2019. While Oregon and Washington DC allow non-binary folks to put an ‘x’ as their driver’s license gender, California is the first to make it a lawfully available option for both licenses and birth certificates. A similar version is headed to federal court soon, which leaves us hoping this change will be a national one.
Precious moment watching Ryland thank Senator Atkins for her efforts to pass SB 179! We are so lucky to have such an incredible leader who fights for our son. Many thanks to Equality CA, Transgender Law Center, Senator Weiner and Governor Brown. I pray other states will follow the lead of CA. #SB179 #RaisingRyland #EQCA
“With Governor Brown’s signature on this bill, transgender and non-binary people will now be able to identify themselves as they are, not as who society tells them they should be,” Democratic Senator Scott Wiener – who was one of two who initially put forth the bill – said in a statement.
To us, SB-179 is a slow move towards accepting what’s already existed all along. There have always been people who live outside the gender binary, but the social and political spheres have been slow to recognize this. In a 2015 transgender survey report, nearly a third of the 28,000 participants chose ‘non-binary’ as their gender when it was a provided option. Let’s work to make that option available to everyone.
Here are a few people who remind us of the endless possibilities between the binary:
