(KSBY) Californians who do not identify as male or female now have a third option when it comes to a driver's license.
"I think the State of California wants to do right," Tranz Central Coast Chair Jamie Woolf said about the decision to add a non-binary option to the license application.
Woolf knows firsthand the internal struggle that comes with checking the gender box at the DMV.
"Essentially, it's lying," said Woolf, a San Luis Obispo resident. "Sometimes you're asked to mark "M" or "F" and to have to choose something that's not the way you feel is a lie and very uncomfortable."
That's why Woolf is praising the state legislature's decision to join the ranks of Oregon, Maine and Washington state by adding a third box to the application.
"The gender category will appear as "M" for male, "F" for female, then the letter "X" for non-binary," said California DMV Public Information Officer Artemio Armenta.
The transition is a result of Senate Bill 179, which states: "The binary gender designations of female and male fail to adequately represent the diversity of human experience."
The new law also allows people to switch from male to female or female to male with ease.
"Previously, a medical certification was required to change your gender on drivers license or ID card," Armenta said. "This is no longer the requirement."
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