PennDOT Driver License Center located at Point Plaza in Butler Township.

Those who identify as neither male nor female will no longer be required to check one of those boxes for their driver's license or state identification card.

The state Department of Transportation announced Thursday that Pennsylvania has joined 16 other states in offering a nonbinary gender designation — which appears as an “x” on Pennsylvania licenses and ID cards — for those who do not consider themselves specifically male or female.

A media call with PennDOT officials and the executive director for the state Commission on LGBTQ Affairs was held Thursday to explain the new designation.

“It is clear that offering driver's licenses and identification cards with male and female gender designations was not meeting the needs of our customers,” said PennDOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian.

Kurt Myers, PennDOT's deputy secretary for driver and vehicle services, said while PennDOT has issued 273 licenses and ID cards containing an “x” under the gender listing in the past two years, it could not be entered as the individual's gender in their PennDOT driver's record.

Myers said the system has now been updated, and the nonbinary designation will be recorded as the individual's gender in their PennDOT record.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Friday's Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.