Federal Court Orders Lambda Legal Case of Nonbinary New Yorker Seeking Accurate Driver’s License to Proceed

New York Federal District Hon. Judge Lewis J. Liman ordered Friday that a lawsuit against New York State on behalf of a nonbinary transgender New Yorker seeking a driver’s license that accurately reflects their gender identity should proceed,  dismissing the State’s arguments that the case was moot.

“I’m grateful and satisfied to see that the court will hear the merits of my case and that if the policy changes many other nonbinary and gender nonconforming New Yorkers would be able to access a driver’s license that reflects who we are and avoids us having to face issues or discrimination,” said plaintiff Sander Saba.

The lawsuit, Saba v. Cuomo, was filed by Lambda Legal in July 2020 challenging New York State’s discriminatory policy that categorically prohibits nonbinary people from obtaining an accurate driver’s license that reflects their gender identity, instead of forcing them to choose either “male” or “female.” Saba, a 26-year-old lawyer, is seeking an accurate driver’s license with an “X” gender marker.

“We feel optimistic that Saba will have their day in court and we hope Judge Liman will affirm that New York State’s policy is discriminatory and deprives nonbinary people of state-issued identification that accurately communicates who they are while they navigate many aspects of life, interact with agencies and access services,” said Carl Charles, staff attorney at Lambda Legal. “By continuing to prohibit nonbinary people from a quintessential state-issued identity document that accurately reflects their identity, New York is denying nonbinary the ability to fully participate in society and causing ongoing harm to their well-being."

Mx. Saba has a New York City birth certificate with an “X” marker, but their Commonwealth of Pennsylvania driver’s license with an accurate X gender marker expired in November 2020. They currently have no state-issued identification card that accurately communicates their gender and therefore are unable to go about their day-to-day life like other New Yorkers.  

There has been some progress already within the state to make policies more inclusive for nonbinary and transgender people. New York City changed its law in 2019 to allow nonbinary people to correct the gender marker on their birth certificates. Furthermore, New York State already allows transgender adults to correct the gender marker on their birth certificates, and just this year as a result of an earlier Lambda Legal lawsuit implemented a new policy to allow those changes for transgender minors. Last year, in response to another lawsuit, New York State’s Department of Health began to allow nonbinary people to obtain birth certificates with an X marker.

Handling the case on behalf of Lambda Legal are Staff Attorney Carl Charles and Senior Attorney Omar Gonzalez-Pagan and lawyers from the law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP.

Explore Lambda Legal’s “X” gender marker map: https://www.lambdalegal.org/map/x-markers

Read more about Lambda Legal’s Saba v. Cuomo lawsuit here: https://www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/cases/saba-v-cuomo

Read the complaint of Saba v. Cuomo lawsuit here: https://www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/legal-docs/saba_ny_20200728_complaint