HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) says that it plans to allow residents to identify as “gender neutral” on their driver’s licenses beginning in 2020, giving applicants the option of selecting an “X” instead of male or female.
Alexis Campbell, a spokesperson for PennDOT, told Fox News that the change comes as result of a number of residents requesting the option, as well “trends” in other states.
“PennDOT is glad to offer a license that is inclusive of everybody and can accurately reflect who they are,” she remarked to the outlet.
Brenda Klitsch, an attorney with the Mazzoni Center, which advocates for homosexual and transgender causes, told the Philadelphia Gay News that “[h]aving the correct gender marker on your ID or one that more accurately reflects you in the world is essential” because it affirms the person’s self-identity and may “reduce harassment.”
“It helps in every aspect of our lives,” she said. “Getting a drink. Going to the doctor. Being stopped by police. That gender option on that ID card will benefit everyone who has it and needs it.”
However, some lawmakers in the state believe that the move is actually unhelpful and should have been decided by the people.
Rep. Tedd Nesbit, R-Mercer County, told The Daily Item that allowing residents to identify as neither male or female will make it difficult for police officers to provide identifying information.
“It’s an unnecessary change,” he said.
Rep. Lynda Schlegel-Culver, R-Northumberland County, also outlined to the outlet that she wonders whether the “X” marker would conflict with federal REAL ID requirements.
Pennsylvania already allows those who identify as transgender to select the sex that reflects their gender identity. Since 2010, men who identify as women — and vice versa — have been able to select the female option for their driver’s license.
However, the Pennsylvania Family Institute believes that since ID is a legal document, it should reflect biological information, not merely one’s feelings.
“Proponents of the legislation provide no answers to the many practical questions it raises,” President Michael Geer said in a statement. “If our state starts discarding biological sex from our identity documents, it will impact law enforcement, insurances, and medical care.”
Pennsylvania joins 13 other states and the District of Columbia in offering the “neither” option.
However, as previously reported, Jamie Shupe, the first person in the United States to be permitted by a court of law to identify as “non-binary” on his driver’s license has since renounced transgenderism and says that he is concerned that doctors were so quick to give him what he wanted just because of his feelings. He said that his mental issues were not properly addressed and cross-hormones did not alleviate his problems.
“In my thirty-plus-year marriage, I am the husband. To my daughter, I am her father. I no longer identify as a transgender or non-binary person and renounce all ties to transgenderism,” Shupe wrote in a blog post in January.
“I will not be a party to advancing harmful gender ideologies that are ruining lives, causing deaths and contributing to the sterilization and mutilation of gender-confused children,” he declared. “My history-making and landmark sex change to non-binary was a fraud based on the pseudoscience of gender identity. I am and have always been male. There should be no social or legal penalty for others to state that.”
While some view transgenderism as a mental health issue, Christians rather view the struggle as a spiritual issue — just one among many that those who have not been regenerated by the Spirit of God face from day to day.
The Bible teaches that all men are in the same predicament: All are born with the Adamic sin nature, having various inherent inclinations that are contrary to the law of God and being utterly incapable of changing themselves. It is why Jesus outlined in John 3:5-7 that men must pass from spiritual death to spiritual life by the second birth, or they cannot see the kingdom of Heaven.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus saith unto him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ‘Ye must be born again.’
“Bitter experience teaches that the imprisoning net clings too tightly to be stripped from our limbs by our own efforts. Nay rather, the net and the captive are one, and he who tries to cast off the oppression which hinders him from following that which is good is trying to cast off himself,” also wrote the late preacher and Bible commentator Alexander Maclaren.
“But to men writhing in the grip of a sinful past, or paralyzed beyond writhing and indifferent, because [they are] hopeless, or because they have come to like their captivity, comes one whose name is ‘The Breaker,’ whose mission it is to proclaim liberty to the captives, and whose hand laid on the cords that bind a soul, causes them to drop harmless from the limbs and sets the bondsman free.”
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