Gender-neutral IDs available to Idahoans

People wishing not to have a specified gender on their state-issued IDs can now do so in Idaho.

Idaho is now among several other states such as Utah, Colorado and California to offer a third option to the male or female designation.

Idahoans choosing not to identify as male or female can get an “X” instead.

But the process isn’t exactly easy. People wishing to have the “X” on their licenses and other state-issued IDs must also have it on their birth certificate.

“For now, it’s mostly children that are born and the parents choose not to identify the gender of the baby,” Bannock County Drivers License supervisor Katrena Hall explained.

The change can also be made by having your gender legally changed on your birth certificate by a judge.

Hall said that although the option has been available for nearly a year “no one” at the Bannock County office has processed one.

Hall believes she will start seeing more of the nonbinary IDs in the future, “just because the way the culture is going, things will change.”

There is also currently a fourth option, according to Hall.

“There’s an “unknown” for people that are born and they’re not quite sure if they are going to be female or male,” she explained.

Hall continued by explaining, “some babies are born with both parts so that’s kind of what brought about the “X” is that they kinda wanted to wait and see how the child developed and what gender they kind of leaned towards before they actually put it on there.”