The family of a South Carolina teen who was told to remove his makeup before being photographed for a driver’s license is suing the Department of Motor Vehicles in federal court.
16-year-old Chase Culpepper, who identifies as gender non-conforming and uses male pronouns, was told his every-day makeup could be considered a “disguise” and was ordered to remove it when he attempted to get his license in March.
“It was wrong to be taken aside and told how I look doesn’t fit with traditional gender roles and how I look is not even good enough to take a driver’s license picture taken,” Chase said.
The New York-based Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund got involved on Chase’s behalf, establishing contact with the DMV and requesting they reconsider and allow him to take the photo with the makeup on. According to the lawsuit filed Tuesday, the DMV never responded to the request.
The suit, which was filed by Chase’s mother, argues that the policy is unconstitutional.
“Chase is entitled to be himself and to express his gender non-conformity without interference from the South Carolina DMV,” Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund Executive Director Michael Silverman said in a statement released Tuesday. “It is not the role of the DMV or any government agency or employee to decide how men and women should look.”
jayj150
Now, this is REAL GENDER NON-CONFORMISM!!. Watch and learn transsexuals; if you love make up, go ahead amd put it!, it doesn’t change the fact you’re a man. I love this kid, being faithful to himself without having to change a damn thing about it: no hormones, no doctor, no mutilation required!, all it takes is BALLS!!. Kudos to this corageous gender-non-conforming hero.
Jamal
@jayj150:
Have some respect for the transgender community.
He’s just a guy who happens to wear makeup,
I’m sure the choice of those who engage in hormone
Therapy, and plastic surgery is legit because they
identify as women/men ect.,
Anyway this is definitely discrimination.
MJust
I wonder if they ask females to take off their makeup because it is considered a disguise?
Ogre Magi
@jayj150: AMEN
Kangol
More power to this child, and his loving, affirming mother.
BTW, he is giving suburban Connecticut mothers’ club president!
Brian
North Carolina let me get an ID with a beard that doubled the size of my head. I guess the South has a preference for the kind of disguise a person puts on. That ain’t right.
Billy Budd
If women are allowed to wear make-up when taking the photograph, men MUST be allowed to do the same.
JJ24
@jayj150: Except some transwomen don’t like make up! Gender nonconforming and being transgender are two very different things. Someone who is trans literally feels like/sees them self as the other gender. Imagine if you woke up with no dick, thats what a transman feels like.
JJ24
I love how they call eyeshadow, mascara and liner a disguise. Have you ever seen a bank robber wear that? No because it does not disguise anything. Further if he wears it everyday, then having him take an id pic without is altering his appearance. If he was wearing some theatrical heavy duty stuff they might have a leg to stand on but some light eye make? They don’t have a chance at wining.
Chris
As long as he “looks like” his photo when he tries to use his driver’s license, what does it matter? Now, if he’s having the photo taken with one look and has another look when he uses the license, then there might be issues involving whether the ID really is or is not of him. ….. I wonder what the courts will say.
jayj150
@JJ24: You said:”Gender nonconforming and being transgender are two very different things”, damn right they’re different things, that’s precisely my point. Transsexuals try to reconcile their interests with their gender, because they despise the idea of being an effeminate man or a masculine woman. TRANSSEXUALISM IS THE ULTIMATE, MOST EXTREME FORM OF GENDER CONFORMISM. Again, congrats to this young gender-non-conforming hero for proving you don’t have to change anything about you to be faithful to yourself.
hyhybt
If he looks like that therest of the time when he leaves the house, he should look like that on his ID. The whole point of a photo ID is to be able to tell by the picture that the person presenting it is the one it belongs to.
Rusty Alcorta
There are still antiquated laws in different cities and towns in the country that prohibit a male cross dressing or wearing a disguise as they wish to call make up and the police use these laws to the full extent when dealing with transvestites, transgenders and transsexuals and in this case gender nonconforming. If this law exists in his county,city or town, he has to abide by it but it can be changed by the community. We had the same problem in some cities and towns in Texas until the early 70s when the cross dressing laws were repealed in most of our big cities where they mostly existed. The police and highway patrol would take us in just because we were wearing make-up with the excuse we didn’t look like the picture on our license even though the county, city or town had no cross dressing laws. I was cross dressing since age of 16 in l967 but I didn’t drive and when I started driving in full face I was taken in just to be harassed and they made me take off my make up at the station just to see if I was the guy in the picture then they would let me go. Later they would keep me over night and I had to see the judge. After appearing before Judge Jackson in Beeville several times and never fined, because there was no law in our county or town that said I couldn’t wear make-up or cross dress, he said he was tired of me appearing before him and told the officer he was tired of wasting the county money on such petty nonsense and asked the officer to have my picture taken in full face. After that when I didn’t wear make-up it was no problem. THIS IS 2014 AND IF SUCH A LAW OR POLICY EXISTS WHERE THIS BOY LIVES IT SHOULD BE REPEALED but until then if it does exist he has to abide by it if not his picture should have been taken as he was in full make-up so that when another officer pulled him over in full make-up the officer would know who he was. I’m glad that our new generation now have a defense.
JJ24
@jayj150: No they do not try to reconcile interest with gender, many have interest of the opposite gender aka tomboys etc. Scientific research has shown they literally have the brains structure of the other gender, so no it is not a simple trying to conform. Once again I ask how would you feel if you lost your dick? Guessing you’d be pissed/upset.
Thanks for proving that gay men can be just as ignorant and bigoted as straight ones.
Spike
@MJust: And the fact of the matter is, A LOT of women look very different when in make up, the difference here however is make up does not make them look more like the male gender. I don’t know what the answer is here, a tough one. If he were to be asked for his ID and he was not in make up, is it then the individual checking the ID’s fault for questioning if it is his ID?
AtticusBennett
He’s dead right. This is nothing more or less than creaky old prejudice dictating how they feel a man should look. The irony – this young man is MORE MAN than any of his detractors. Rock on, Kiddo. You’ve got brass balls, and we have your back.
rickhfx
Those people at the DMV are just ignorant bigots. I hope he wins a ton of cash.
seaguy
Is he is still a boy legally then he should be photographed on his ID as a boy. We can’t have it half way one way half the other what if he ends up turning into some sort of criminal and then uses that ID calling him a man buy picturing him as a woman to get past authorities while running from the law or something like that. It does not seem like that much tro ask that they remain pictured as a man if legally in the eyes of the law they are still male.
seaguy
@JJ24: They are the ones that stick out like a sore thumb too.
AtticusBennett
@seaguy: i understand that you’re not very intelligent, but the reality is that there is actually no set-in-stone way that a “boy should look” – it’s all baseless societal concepts.
he’s a brave young man – going out into the world each day presenting something that society’s worst ignorant bigots don’t understand.
JJ24
@seaguy: He’s not changing genders, he’s just a boy who likes to wear makeup.
AlexM123
He’s going to lose this case, and he should. To make my point, would anyone even be batting an eye if this were a woman making this claim? Plenty of DMVs don’t allow anyone to wear make-up on the grounds that it could be a disguise. Don’t act dumb people. A drag queen looks like a completely different person with the right make-up. The request is completely normal and it really isn’t asking him to do more than look how he naturally does. This isn’t a prom picture, it’s legal identification. What makes him so special that he has the right to wear make-up when no one else does? Honestly he’s just being an attention whore.
praenomenal
@AlexM123: what makes you think no one does. I stopped to put on lipstick and eyeliner before my photo.