NCTE Advisory: Real ID Act Regulations Released
(Washington, DC) — Today the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued long overdue final draft regulations for implementation of the Real ID Act. These regulations represent the requirements states are being told to follow for standardization of driver’s licenses, verification of citizenship status, and information matching between state and federal databases.
Only new IDs that meet the Real ID Act standard will be acceptable for federal purposes such as air travel or entering courthouses. Due to great displeasure from state officials over serious concerns with the Real ID Act, DHS Sec. Chertoff also announced that the implementation deadline for state compliance will be extended— until December 31, 2009—from the original May 2008 date.
The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) is working with attorneys from Lambda Legal, Transgender Law Center, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the ACLU and others to examine the requirements released today and to plan next steps in addressing how this may impact our communities.
While the regulations and the Real ID Act itself could dramatically impact trans people in negative ways, trans people should keep the following in mind:
- The regulations issued today are draft regulations. There is a comment period during which NCTE and many other organizations will be submitting comments to DHS about how damaging these regulations would be if implemented.
- The Real ID Act is now not scheduled to begin implementation until December 31, 2009.
- Since the Real ID passed in 2005, NCTE and many other organizations representing state governments, immigrants, civil libertarians and others have worked diligently to overturn the Act. (That effort has taken on steam lately, with the legislature of the State of Maine voting to refuse to comply with the Real ID Act. It is our assessment that other states will follow this lead over the next few months making implementation of the Act increasingly difficult.)
- There are several bills before Congress supported by NCTE and many others that would repeal the Real ID Act.
But even with the newly extended deadline, the regulations do not change the fact that the REAL ID Act simply cannot work and is a serious potential threat to transgender people. Here are some ways it could impact trans people:
- It could make it almost or totally impossible for transgender people in some or all states to obtain accurate driver’s licenses, causing extreme difficulties for trans people to participate in everyday aspects of society such as driving, traveling on airplanes, purchasing alcohol or opening bank accounts.
- It will expose transgender people to routine discrimination everywhere IDs are inspected, including in employment, in schools, purchasing goods or otherwise conducting business, at any security check-in, etc.
- It would likely expose transgender people's personal medical information to databases accessible by all local state and federal law enforcement officers and others.
- Because it would require every driver in the United States to renew their driver's license from scratch with proof of birth, residence and citizenship, those trans people who have acquired gender changes on licenses without proof of genital surgery could lose their accurate ID.
The National Center for Transgender Equality continues to monitor the progress of the Real ID Act, how it will specifically impact transgender people, and to advocate for ways to mitigate the danger to our community. We will keep you apprised of movement around this law and ways you can be involved in the effort for its repeal.
National Center for Transgender Equality
email:
phone: 202.903.0112
web: http://www.nctequality.org
