Readers React: Where to find transgender bias in California: the DMV

To the editor: When you say it’s time for transgender rights opponents to give up the fight, are you including the government of California? (“Time for transgender rights opponents to give up the fight,” editorial, Dec. 27)

When I moved to the state in 2013, I expected to be given the same legal rights as any other woman. Instead, when I dutifully went to the DMV to get my California driver’s license in early 2014, I found the state itself discriminates against trans people.

Though I had been living full time as a woman for eight years and had my New Mexico driver’s license and Medicare card to prove it, the DMV said I had to have a doctor certify I’m female. After vainly trying to get help from my state senator and assemblyman, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Transgender Law Center, I finally gave up and left California in disgust, never to return.

Joni Kay Rose, Silver City, N.M.

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