In a few weeks, 17-year-old Chase Culpepper will go to her local DMV in Anderson, South Carolina, and pose for her driver's license photo.
This rite of passage, however, will have special significance. On Wednesday, Culpepper, who identifies as a transgender girl, won the right to wear makeup in her identification photo.
That wasn't the case last March when Culpepper and her mother went to the DMV for the first time. Culpepper stood for her photo wearing makeup as she normally does, but a DMV employee said that she needed to remove it to "look male."
Congratulations to @TLDEF & Chase Culpepper for the victory in SC. Government should never enforce gender stereotypes http://t.co/8X1E2C5x1f— Congressman Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) April 22, 2015
The employee said that the DMV rules prohibited license applicants to take photos in "disguise," according to a lawsuit that Culpepper's mother, Teresa Culpepper, filed last September.
Once Chase wiped her face and removed her mascara, to comply with the employee's request, her photograph was taken.
"That was something I was very excited about, just like anybody else," Culpepper tells Mashable. "It was a very traumatic experience for me, which is why I felt so driven to change that experience for other people."
The settlement in Culpepper's case requires the South Carolina DMV to change its photo policy to make clear than an "applicant is not misrepresenting his/her identity when the applicant's makeup, clothing or accessories do not match traditional expectations of an applicant's gender."
DMV employees must also receive training to implement the new policy and learn about the "professional treatment of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals."
The South Carolina DMV declined to comment on the settlement because the agency does not discuss litigation.
"The settlement agreement sends a really strong message," says Ethan Rice, a staff attorney for the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, the nonprofit advocacy organization that filed Culpepper's suit.
Congrats to Chase Culpepper! Live and smile proudly for that drivers license photo! #BrokenGround #LGBT— Jack Wrangler (@commandacody) April 23, 2015
While the settlement isn't binding in other state courts, says Rice, it does provide a clear example of policies and practices that were found to be unconstitutional and discriminatory in a federal court.
Some states' DMVs have already adopted policies to accommodate transgender individuals, but others have not.
"This is a step toward equality as it should be," Teresa Culpepper says. "When we encountered this, we knew something had to be done."
Chase is hopeful that the new policy will make visits to the DMV easier for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals: "The goal is to make [our lives] equal to anyone else’s life and guarantee basic human rights."