How to Change the Gender on Your Driver’s License

The following states allow you to change the gender listed on your driver’s license to male, female, or in some states, nonbinary (usually written as “X” or “Not Specified”). Here’s how to do it.

While not every state outlines how to change your driver’s license’s listed gender, no state bans it explicitly (some simply have no policies whatsoever). Additionally, some states that allow for it require you to undergo gender confirmation surgery to do so, a procedure that is not accessible or desirable to all transgender people.

Gender Confirmation Surgery Required

Of the people that identify as transgender — which, as of March 2021, made up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population — only about 11 percent get gender confirmation surgeries, also known as gender-affirming surgeries or gender confirmation surgeries.²

Some trans people don’t want to get gender-affirming surgery, preferring to stay physically the same or only undergo hormone treatment, dermatology changes, and voice therapy.³ Others may want such procedures, but encounter discrimination and barriers to entry in the healthcare system, along with financial, employment, and insurance hurdles, according to a study published in Sexual Research and Social Policy.⁴

Although these surgeries are becoming more common, the majority of trans people don’t transition their sexual organs. That means they would have to keep the genders they were assigned at birth on their driver’s licenses in the following states:

• Georgia
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Nebraska
• Oklahoma
• Tennessee

All of these states require gender confirmation surgery to change your gender on your license

Other Proof of Gender Change Required

Some state legislation provides vague language that doesn’t explicitly mandate gender confirmation surgery to change the gender on your driver’s license, but instead requires statements from physicians, court orders, or other documentation. For example, in Arizona, a licensed physician must sign a statement verifying that the person is “irrevocably committed to the gender-change process.”⁵

The below states require such kinds of gender change proof. See the above chart to find out exactly what your state requires, in addition to or instead of gender confirmation surgery.

While no state outwardly bans changing genders on licenses, these states do not have active policies either way.

• Alabama
• Mississippi
• Montana
• South Carolina
• South Dakota

However, what can and can’t be required in Alabama is under litigation as of February 2023. Previously, Policy Order 63 required the state’s transgender residents to have “gender reassignment surgery” before they could alter the sex on their drivers’ licenses.⁹ However, that policy was found to be unconstitutional and in violation of the Equal Protection Clause under the 14th Amendment. The issue is still working its way through the court system, leaving the process for updating one’s gender unclear in this state.¹⁰

Transgender rights are a hot-button issue in the U.S., the subject of culture wars and legislative battles that impact something as common as drivers’ licenses. If you’re interested in learning more about the world of driving through the lens of another marginalized community, check out our article on auto insurance for undocumented immigrants.