Chase Culpepper, 16, was forced to remove her everyday makeup after DMV employees said she could not ‘misrepresent her identity’ on driver’s license

A transgender South Carolina teen will be able to wear makeup in her driver’s license picture, after she successfully sued the state’s DMV for forcing her to remove her makeup in her first driver’s license photo.



The new driver, 16-year-old Chase Culpepper, was forced to remove her everyday makeup before her license photo in March 2014, when she went to the state’s DMV branch in Anderson. DMV employees cited a policy that barred drivers from “purposely alter[ing] his/her appearance so that the photo would misrepresent his/her identity”.

Per the terms of a settlement announced Wednesday, Culpepper will be able to get a new DMV photo wearing her everyday makeup, and the DMV will institute sensitivity training, update its picture policy and apologize to Culpepper.

“From day one all that I wanted was a photo that looked like me,” said Culpepper at a press conference Wednesday morning. “I brought this case because what happened to me was wrong, it was hurtful to be singled out for being transgender … My hope is that I made a difference that will help other people.”

The settlement with the DMV came without a price tag – attorneys took on Culpepper’s case pro bono, and Culpepper will not receive any remuneration from the DMV as part of the agreement.

“The DMV, I believe, recognized the error of their ways,” said attorney Marshall Winn of the Wyche law firm in Greenville, saying the agency’s apparent change of heart was “worthy of recognition”.

“This type of discrimination happens to transgender people every day at departments of motor vehicle around the country,” said Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Silverman said he believes the settlement sends a message to other departments of motor vehicles: “They need to bring their policies and practices up to date to ensure that they’re not discriminating against transgender people, and to ensure they are treating them professionally and respectfully.”