DMV photos are as close to most people are going to come to taking a mug shot. The lighting is bad, the angles are wrong, and people are uglier than they think they are.
But that doesn’t stop some people from trying to look their best for their state-issued ID. A 16-year-old in South Carolina passed the road test and showed up to the DMV in full make-up. The problem is that he’s a boy. And in South Carolina, boys are evidently not supposed to wear make-up — though methinks Lindsey Graham never got that memo.
The South Carolina motor vehicles department determined that the boy was wearing a “disguise,” and made him take off his face before taking the photo and issuing his driver’s license.
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Now, his mother is suing on his behalf…
The stated policy of the South Carolina DMV is discriminatory on its face. From CNN (gavel bang: ABA Journal)
The state DMV said in June it had a policy specifying the requirements for the photograph.
“At no time will an applicant be photographed when it appears that he or she is purposely altering his or her appearance so that the photo would misrepresent his or her identity,” the policy says.
“That’s been the policy since August of 2009,” spokeswoman Beth Parks said.
“Stage makeup is not acceptable because it can be used to alter appearance. Regular everyday makeup is accepted because it’s used to highlight or hide blemishes,” she said.
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What the f**k is “regular everyday makeup” if it’s not make-up you wear everyday, regularly? Just because South Carolina DMV drones can’t conceive of a world where boys wear make-up every day doesn’t mean they can enforce that uptight worldview on the general public. Allegedly, a DMV worker told the boy, Chase Culpepper, that he was wearing a “disguise” and didn’t look “like a boy should.”
Conservatives who don’t understand transgender issues will doubtlessly point out that there is a compelling state interest in having photo IDs that are depictions of what a person “really” looks like. There is. But that interest is only enhanced when those photos accurately depict how a person is likely to look. Chase Culpepper is a kid who wears make-up. I’m a guy who wears glasses and generally keeps his hair tight. Sure, I can take my glass off and grow out my ‘fro and look like a totally different person, at least at a passing glance. But ‘fro-Elie isn’t going to fool a trained professional, while an untrained building ID checker is most likely to see me with a haircut and glasses. Just as people are most likely to see Culpepper with make-up on.
It’s called photo identification. Culpepper identifies in this way. South Carolina has no right to force him to identify some way else.
DMV says no makeup for driver’s license photo; boy sues [CNN]
Suit claims male has constitutional right to wear makeup in driver’s license photo [ABA Journal]