Around New England

Connecticut Now Offering Non-Binary Driver’s Licenses

January 28, 2020

Connecticut’s Department of Motor Vehicles has begun offering non-binary-gender driver’s licenses.

As of Monday, January 27, Now, the state’s residents have three license options:  male, female, and non-binary. The non-binary option will be represented by the letter X, according to NBC 4 New York.

Connecticut is now one of more than a dozen states that offer this designation. 

Connecticut state Senator Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) said the move is a major achievement. 

“For a lot of folks this is a big deal,” he told NBC 4 New York. “This is a great move by the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles. It’s going to make a real difference for some people in Connecticut. If you’re not affected, the cost to taxpayers is nothing.”  

The Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles is warning residents that the Gender X identification could run into some complications. Most notably, it’s a designation not used in a large majority of the 50 states.

Although the policy took effect on Monday, January 27 at AAA and non-department run locations, as of Tuesday, January 28 it became official policy at state-run Department of Motor Vehicles locations.

The Massachusetts Department of Motor Vehicles began offering Gender X for driver’s licenses on November 12, 2019 under its own authority.

Maine and Rhode Island also offer Gender X for driver’s licenses.

Fortune Magazine reported in December 2019 that switching to allow a third gender option for driver’s licenses is costing some states hundreds of thousands of dollars.