Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund celebrates news that the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles has changed its license photo policy to allow transgender individuals to be photographed as they regularly appear.

The DMV’s new policy comes in response to TLDEF’s threat of litigation on behalf of a group of transgender women who were told by the DMV that they would not receive driver’s licenses unless they changed their regular appearance to try to look male in their license photos.

In 2014, Trudy Kitzmiller (pictured above) and Kristen Skinner attempted to update their driver’s licenses to reflect their new legal names and appearances at separate DMV offices in West Virginia. They were met with hostility and harassment by DMV officials who insisted that they remove their makeup, jewelry and other items in order to try to look male in their license photos. Both women were called “it” by DMV staff. The DMV’s existing license photo policy prohibited license applicants from “misrepresenting gender.” (See full story at transgenderlegal.org)