USA Today: San Francisco approves ID cards that exclude gender

Next year, San Francisco will issue municipal identification cards showing the usual name, birthdate and photo.

What the card won’t include: gender.

When other cities considered issuing ID cards without regard to legal status, the debate was over illegal immigrants. In San Francisco, where the Board of Supervisors approved such an ID on Tuesday, transgender activists added gender to the discussion.

“Transgender” is a broad term for people who do not identify with their birth sex. Those who refer to themselves as transgender include cross-dressers and transsexuals.

“The card really makes gender a non-issue,” says Kristina Wertz, legal director of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco.

Read it all.

Posted in * Culture-Watch, Sexuality

24 comments on “USA Today: San Francisco approves ID cards that exclude gender

  1. Br. Michael says:

    These people are nuts. Why not issue everyone a generic ID card. We could all B. Smith. Everything else unknown.

  2. Jeff Thimsen says:

    Why “B”? I resent being forced to declare my identity with a specific letter. This would be blatant and judgmental alphabetism.

  3. Jeffersonian says:

    If there’s one thing this nation needs to defeat, it’s the rampant B-ism present in society.

  4. KAR says:

    We can say whatever we want but at the molecular level we either have two “X” chromosomes or a “X” and an “Y” chromosomes.

  5. Frances Scott says:

    For most people have gender on an ID is somewhat unecessary any way…usually you can tell by looking.

  6. Br_er Rabbit says:

    Hmmm.. KAR, there are examples of humans born and identified who in every particular appear to be female, and whose bodies operate in a normal female fashion, yet possess both an “X” and a “Y” chromosome.

  7. The_Archer_of_the_Forest says:

    Ah yes, San Francisco. Eight square miles surrounded by reality.

  8. miserable sinner says:

    #5 When was your last visit to SF?

    Peace,

  9. Bill C says:

    I would hope that they would at least leave a box for those who want to give a more extensive identification of themselves.

  10. Oldman says:

    #8. Great point!
    Actually, San Francisco serves a very useful purpose by showcasing the plans liberals have for the TEC and the U.S.A. This idiocy has been going on out there for many years and if it were a happier and more contented society with less crime the rest of us might pay attention to them, especially when the TEC wants to follow their crazy ways.

  11. nwlayman says:

    Bil, that occurred to me as I looked at the clergy directory for the Diocese of Olympia. Nowadays the clergyman/woman is listed followed by “Spouse/Partner”. It is simply assumed that clergy shack up. Notice, every man’s wife and every woman’s husband is reduced to the rank of concubine. No options for the normally married, no distinction is made. It makes the same-sex marriage lobby a little clearer. They don’t want what normal married people have, they *don’t want you to have it*. Important to notice this.

  12. Br. Michael says:

    11, good observation.

  13. DonGander says:

    I can see a day comming when it will be unlawful to identify statis; ie., Mrs. Gander, Mr Jones, Miss Smith, or even, son John.

  14. Frances Scott says:

    Miserable sinner, 3 years ago, and then under protest, SF being at the top of my list of places I had hoped never to visit, ever. I did modify my comment with “most people”. Most people do not live in SF, are not transvestites, transgendered, or hermaphrodites.

  15. MargaretG says:

    Frances – I am finding it increasingly difficult to determine folks gender — and actually having a squiz at some form that gave me a clue was a great help. I wonder when we are going to be obliged to drop the old He and She and call everyone It.

  16. Jeffersonian says:

    Ine question: Who else lives in a city that issues ID cards? Is one required to cough up one’s ID for SF police on demand? What kind of fascist outpost is this?

  17. ASimpleSinner says:

    “Ine question: Who else lives in a city that issues ID cards? Is one required to cough up one’s ID for SF police on demand? What kind of fascist outpost is this? “

    Really, this speaks to an arrogance of some of the folks of San Francisco who are so damned smug, you would get the impression the city is an extra-territorial entity unto itself. The fantasy and imagination of these folks is unrivaled.

  18. rob k says:

    SS – Have you ever lived in or near SF?

  19. Larry Morse says:

    The issue is political correctness at its silliest. What difference does it make what your gender is? In fact, none, in reality. Onlyin SanFrancisco. We see again what we have all seen so often before, what happens when an issue of substance fall into the hands of well meaning people but of the smallest understanding. One certain way to identify a mediocre mind: The pursuit of important principles in matters of no consequence. LM

  20. ASimpleSinner says:

    Rob K – 6 of the longest months of my life.

  21. Br_er Rabbit says:

    One does not have to travel to the land of Fruits and Nuts to discover champions for cross-gender identity protection. They can be found right in the heartland of the midwest, and include governors as well as mayors. All that is left is to elect a president who will go with the flow.

  22. rob k says:

    No. 21 – BR – Thanks for adding balance to this discussion. People are blind if they don’t see these same issues taking place in the same way in their own back yard.

  23. rob k says:

    No. 20 – SS – What was so awful about it? I ask this sincerely. I am somewhere between moderate/conservative and would truly be interested in your response. Most of these silly excesses, by the way, are perpetrated by people who have come from somewhere else. How much do you know of the history of this area? Thx.

  24. Barry says:

    Just wondering if the ID stipulates that one is an intelligent lifeform in the genus homo sapiens?

    Is there a box checked for either rational or irrational?

    How about just regular coupons for stuff like driver’s license, checking cashing and library checkout? Oh that’s right, it’s a picture ID with a bearded lady name Jane Doe.

    Talk about egocentric, does the universe revolve around these people? Must a very small orbit if it is so!