Arkansas Driver’s Licenses and IDs Will List “Male” or “Female” as Stated on Birth Certificate

On Tuesday the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration announced that state-issued driver’s licenses and photo IDs would list “male” or “female” as stated on the ID-holder’s birth certificate.

The revised policy prevents ID-holders from changing the gender on their ID without documentation. It also eliminates the option of listing an “X” in place of “male” or “female.” This will better safeguard the integrity of driver’s licenses and other photo IDs the State of Arkansas issues.

In a press release, state officials said,

Effective immediately, DFA is rescinding its existing administrative practice that allows license holders to change their gender without any verifiable information, or to utilize an “X” in lieu of gender. This action restores DFA’s long-standing policy that license and ID holders must display a gender of “male” or “female,” as indicated on an original or amended birth certificate.

“This policy is just common sense. Only women give birth, men shouldn’t play women’s sports, and there are only two genders. As long as I’m Governor, Arkansas state government will not endorse nonsense,” said Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

All previously issued licenses and IDs with the “X” designation will remain valid through the existing expiration date. Updates will take place at renewal.

Arkansas law makes it possible to change a birth certificate — including the sex listed on a birth certificate, if the person’s name legally has been changed and the person has undergone a surgical sex-change procedure. Practically speaking, the driver’s license policy announced Tuesday will ensure people follow this process outlined in state law if they want to change the gender listed on a driver’s license.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

Doing Better for Our Daughters: Guest Column

In a recent article published in Newsweek, Kristen Waggoner described how the federal government is working to remove protections for women’s sports, ironically in the name of equity and justice. When Title IX rules that protect female representation in sports are reinterpreted to privilege males who claim a transgender identity, the original purpose of Title IX is turned on its head. 

Twenty years ago, or maybe just 10, if anyone were to predict that women and girls would be denied privacy, scholarship money, and the fair chance to compete in sports, the culprits would have been assumed to be the advocates of a Handmaid’s Tale-style, Right-wing patriarchy. But this move is being championed by those on the Left because they are committed to a worldview in which identity is constructed and the freedom to self-express is the highest good.  

But the freedom from reality is not freedom at all, certainly not the freedom promised to women and girls. 

Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.