Haddad’s proposal, Bill H-4499, says, “Not with-standing any general or special law to the contrary, an application shall be permitted to designate ‘X’ in lieu of “male” or “female” on a driver’s license pursuant to Section 8 of Chapter 90” of the Massachusetts General Laws.

Michael Holtzman Herald News Staff Reporter @MDHoltzman

A Massachusetts House bill filed by state Rep. Patricia Haddad offers a third gender designation on licenses and identification cards.

The measure received Senate concurrence Monday.

Referred to the Joint Committee on Transportation, the proposed new option and change in the law mirrors a small number of states in the country, including one under consideration by the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles that would become the first such law on the East Coast, according to Newsweek.

Haddad’s proposal, Bill H-4499, says, “Not with-standing any general or special law to the contrary, an application shall be permitted to designate ‘X’ in lieu of “male” or “female” on a driver’s license pursuant to Section 8 of Chapter 90” of the Massachusetts General Laws.

Sections 8E and 8B on the issuance of a learner’s permit and identification card or a liquor purchase identification card pursuant to Chapter 138, Sect. 34B of the MGL, would also apply, says the House bill Haddad, D-Somerset, the House speaker pro tempore, filed on Nov. 6.

The identification under Sect. 8E pertains to persons not possessing motor vehicle licenses and any person 14 and older.

They pertain to Massachusetts residents.

The Senate co-sponsors are Sens. Patricia Jehlen, D-Somerville, and Karen Spilka, D-Ashland. Spilka chairs the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The House bill stipulates “no documentation shall be required for such designation” of a gender identifying “X.”

It also says the state Registry of Motor Vehicles may “promulgate regulations” toward its implementation.

According to a USA Today story a year ago, state governments have been responding to a national recognition that “for many people” designating gender is not always easily defined.

While transgender has traditionally referred to people of one gender who change their identification from male to female and female to male, that designation has expanded.

The National Center for Transgender references a sizable percentage describing themselves as “non-binary,” meaning “people whose gender is not exclusively male or female, including those who identify with a gender other than male or female, as more than one gender, or as no gender, identifying as a combination of genders or not identifying with either gender at all,” said the news story attribution.

The states of Oregon and California as well as Washington, D.C. offer the third gender option by their registries of motor vehicles that Vermont is considering, the Newsweek story said.

The state of Washington on Jan. 27 began issuing birth certificates that include the gender identity option X.

Haddad could not be reached for immediate comment on the bill.

Email Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com or call him at 508-676-2573.