Opinion: Letter to the Editor: A Plea for Gender-neutral Option
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Opinion: Letter to the Editor: A Plea for Gender-neutral Option

Governor Northam, Del. Filler-Corn, and Sen. Marsden, I am calling on you to add a gender neutral option for Virginia drivers licenses. As a Non-Binary person, this little change would mean an enormous amount. It would be an official validation of who I am. It would help me believe we are all truly equal citizens under the law. It would help normalize different genders besides man and woman, and it would help recognize intersexed people who are so often overlooked. Fifteen other states and D.C. already have this option. I have been told all my life I do not fit in. I have been physically harmed. I have learned to not use a bathroom for over 12 hours at a time. I have been subject to very confused friskings at the airport because I do not fit into one of two boxes, and whichever box they pick, I ping for not looking right In the scan.

Please give me a third option. Such a small change to be inclusive of all Virginia’s citizens. To not be humiliated, to have my government recognize who I am. Add a gender neutral option on the Virginia drivers license.

Ja'acov Miriam Van Pelt

Burke