Yes, in filling out the form to request that my new license be of the shiny newfangled Real ID variety, I was caught off guard, you might say, to see that there were three options to choose from for gender: male, female and nonbinary.
As I found out later, if you choose nonbinary as your sex, it will be denoted on your ID with an "X" ... and California is not the first state to do this. Oregon holds that distinction, adopting the change in 2017. Between then and when Cali came on board, Maine, Minnesota and Arkansas added the option. Other states that have followed suit since include Colorado, Indiana, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maryland, Nevada, Washington and Massachusetts.
Naturally, many have cheered this shift. It also unavoidably raises a whole gaggle of questions for plenty of others—not the least of which being, in this new world order, why designate a gender at all on someone's ID?
Or looking at it from another angle, are we headed for a not-too-distant future where it will be standard social custom to request someone's ID when you first interact so as to eliminate any possibility of misgendering them? Seems mighty Orwellian to me, but I don't know, just spitballing here.
More importantly though, what does all of this mean for the legacy of once-beloved SNL character Pat? Was it in some slanted way prophetic, or just a now painfully cringey relic of a bygone cultural sensibility? Judging by this New York Times piece on the subject, it feels an awful lot like the latter.
Regardless, one thing is absolutely certain: It's Pat: The Movie was uncalled for on all levels. I never saw it and most likely never will. Because christ, just look at this actual, for-serious trailer that really played everywhere for real:
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