Arkansas Supreme Court Rules Against ‘Gender Neutral’ Options on State IDs

On Tuesday, the Arkansas Supreme Court eliminated the option for a “gender neutral” status on state identification forms, in another blow to the transgender movement.

As Fox News reports, the ruling by the state’s high court reinstates a state law that had forbidden the use of “X” as a third option in the “gender” section of state identification forms and their applications. The law had been blocked by a lower court, which argued that it discriminated against so-called “transgenders,” people who falsely believe that they are of the opposite gender than the one with which they were born.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin released a statement celebrating the ruling.

“I applaud the Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision staying the circuit court’s unlawful order and allowing the Department of Finance and Administration to bring its identification rules into compliance with state law,” said the Attorney General.

The lawsuit against the bill had originally been filed by the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which issued its own statement condemning the ruling as an “emergency.”

“The only real emergency here is the one created by the state itself, imposing this rule on transgender, intersex, and nonbinary Arkansans,” said ACLU spokeswoman Holly Dickson. “By removing the ‘X’ marker option, the state forces those who do not fit squarely into the gender binary to choose an inaccurate gender marker, resulting in potential confusion, distress, discrimination, physical harm, and a lack of proper identification.”

Following the ruling in Arkansas, the number of states that have a third, “gender neutral” option on ID forms is just 21, plus the District of Columbia.

Prior to the ruling, just 387 of the state’s 2.6 million active driver’s licenses had utilized the “X” option. Of the state’s 503,000 IDs, only 167 were listed as “X.”