Illinois State Police: Gender ‘X’ implementation more challenging than state suggests.

Illinois Faces Challenges in Implementing Gender “X” Option on ID Cards

Illinois is encountering obstacles in its efforts to introduce the gender “X” option on residents’ identification cards. State law enforcement claims that the implementation of this new option is more difficult than state officials initially anticipated.

In 2019, Illinois passed a law allowing nonbinary individuals to select “X” as their gender on driver’s licenses and other state IDs. Originally, the Illinois secretary of state’s office estimated that the option would not be available until 2024, giving agencies sufficient time to update their systems to accommodate the new gender marker.

However, the office has now declared that it is “ready to launch” the measure and is expressing frustration with various entities, including law enforcement and healthcare, for their lack of preparedness in implementing the gender “X” designation.

State police argue that they were unable to make adjustments to their internal systems without clear directions from the secretary of state’s office, which were only provided recently.

According to state police spokeswoman Melaney Arnold, the gender “X” change will impact the LEADS database, an information sharing system that retrieves data from driver’s licenses and criminal history records. Arnold explains that a separate vendor will need to program LEADS databases used by other law enforcement agencies to recognize and accept the gender “X” option.

“This is an oversimplification as these changes will take several months to complete,” Arnold stated. “Every state’s system is ‘wired’ differently, so this may be easier for some states compared to others.”

The court systems will also be affected by this change, requiring the state police to make modifications to its Criminal History Records Information and its data on criminal court outcomes. Additionally, Livescan fingerprint machines will need to be updated to accept the gender “X” option.

Chris Bonjean, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, mentioned that there is already an “unknown” gender option for parties involved in court cases. However, with the law change, the “unknown” option will need to be expanded to include the gender “X” designation.

The administrative office will need 90 days to update their systems and communicate the changes to other courts across Illinois.

Lawmakers who supported the 2019 law are questioning the delay in the rollout of this measure. They believe that either the changes should have already been implemented or a plan should have been in place once the secretary of state’s office was ready to proceed.

“These agencies who are coming in with last-minute complaints were well aware of this bill when it passed and should’ve been prepared to implement it all along,” said Democratic state Rep. Anne Stava-Murray, the sponsor of the gender marker legislation. “They need to enter hyperspeed and get prepared if they have not been doing the work all along.”

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