The Office of Motor Vehicles will not be changing the policy for driver’s license pictures after a transgender woman was denied her I.D. because she did not look like a man. 
Alex Glover was born male and now identifies as female. When Glover went to the OMV in Baton Rouge to renew her driver’s license, she was asked to remove her make-up in order to take her picture.  The OMV clerk told Glover that because she was listed as a male, she needed to represent that gender. 
State policy prohibits someone from misrepresenting their gender in their driver’s license picture.  While Glover didn’t want to change the gender identification on her license, which would read “M” for male, she wanted to take her picture in a way that represented her every day appearance.  
Glover now has her license.  However, this event has other transgender people concerned, including Luthius Buchanan and Zacharie Brady, a transgender couple at Louisiana State University. 
“I’m quite worried because it’s probably going to be an issue soon because I’m finally getting an ID for Louisiana,” Buchanan said. Buchanan will be going to get a new license soon, and he is worried that the OMV employees will treat him as Glover was treated.
Originally, Glover made the OMV question the rules, and there were plans to review the policy. However, the OMV recently announced the policy will not change. Instead, employees will be trained to know the difference between someone who is misrepresenting themselves and someone who is transgender, said Col. Mike Edmonson, OMV Supervisor. 
Some students believe this training will help solve the issue. 
 “That way, just because you may not understand and you may not even agree, doesn’t mean you can’t be educated and doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know,” said Megan Gilliam, president of Qroma at LSU. 
“As long as people are aware that being Trans is completely different than misrepresenting yourself, than that solves that particular issue for the most part,” Buchanan said. 
While the policy is not changing, “the agency will allow transgender people to get their photo taken as they appear in their day-to-day lives,” according to a statement from Col. Edmonson and the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections.  
“The only reason an OMV clerk would not take a patron’s picture is if he or she is wearing a hat, sunglasses, or a mask, for instance. The policy is in place to prevent driver’s license fraud,” Col. Edmonson said.