Around New England

Massachusetts Senate Approves Gender X Driver’s Licenses Bill

April 25, 2019

The Massachusetts Senate has approved a bill that would create a Gender X option in addition to male and female on state driver’s licenses.

The vote was 39-1, with state Senator Donald Humason (R-Westfield) opposed. The other five Republicans in the state Senate voted for the bill, along with all 34 Democrats.

The bill is likely to gain approval in the Massachusetts House of Representative, too, but the full House has not yet taken it up.

Supporters say the bill would allow people who don’t identify as either male or female to identify themselves more accurately on an official government document. Opponents say it would make government documents inaccurate, since human beings are either male or female.

A version of the Gender X bill died at the end of the legislative session last year when then-state Representative Jim Lyons (R-Andover) introduced dozens of amendments late in the process ostensibly to create options for the various purported versions of gender expression. Lyons is now chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party.